


Rainy Veil

by Midori_Hime



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: And ships but w/e, Anxiety, Genderbend, Hint: it ain't Nagisa, Kind of a slow start, More characters to be added, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pretty much canon except for the Genderbend, School Related Stress, Starts pre canon and eventually goes post canon up to 7 yrs later, Too spoilery for now haha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-11-17
Packaged: 2018-07-14 19:45:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7187582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midori_Hime/pseuds/Midori_Hime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A child breaking the rules only to rebuild them, suiting themselves, making them master of the game. But things don't always work out as planned, eventually the master is caught, the game ends and consequences must be dealt with.</p>
<p>A look at Class 3-E with one character being vastly different from what people think yet not thinking about it in the slightest. After all, "I am who I am".</p>
<p>(AKA How to plot when there is only a very, very, <i>very</i> vague plot????)</p>
<p>(AKA Assclass with one gender swap)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Perfect Child

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! This is my first Ansatsu Kyoshitsu fic~
> 
> I won't have time to do a lot of updating (and really shouldn't be writing this instead of my other fics bUT OH WELL) ~~but expect at least one chapter a month. (?? maaaybe)~~ I should be able to update twice a month, starting from September~ There will be parts (?), that are mostly a time guide (the first two parts only take five chapters haha). Third will be the anime/manga, fourth and fifth will take place after that.
> 
> Slow start, but I hope you find it interesting. There will be a variety of ships, the character won't be revealed for a few chapters (4 or 5) (but you can probably guess haha), but the other characters won't know for aaaaagggeess (hey, they're saving the world, they're a little preoccupied, okay??).
> 
> In any case, I hope you enjoy it!

**I. Early Days**

**(Childhood)**

From day one, the phrase ‘perfect child’ was a running mantra. Not in their household, of course, but from everyone who came into contact with them. They’d coo and laugh, prod (in a supposedly gentle way) and rain down compliments, making the new parents beam with pride, and the baby gurgle happily under all the attention.

“Skin so soft, like a little lamb’s fleece!”  
“Puffy little cheeks that could be pinched all day!”  
“Lovely, silky hair, just like mama’s!”  
“Bright eyes just like papa’s!”

The years went by, and it was the same ideas, same praises, just different words. A lot had changed in their household, but nobody seemed to pick up on that fact, running through the same routine, again and again and again, at the grocery store, at school drop offs and pick ups, walking home after running an errand, even when visitors unexpectedly dropped in for tea (of course, they were _always_ welcome; after all, a _perfect child_ couldn’t live in anything but a _perfect household_ , right?).

“What good grades you have!”  
“I wish my child were more like you!”  
“You’ve grown up so well!”  
“All of the other children are so happy when you play with them, dear!”

Honestly, it was dull. They didn’t know anything. They were strangers, looking in through their family’s living room window, piecing together a couple of key moments from their unwanted intrusions with what they saw on the outside, two pieces from two different puzzles, similar but different, fitting together because they were forced, but these strangers decided it was a perfect fit. In all honesty, life wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t not perfect either. It just was.

School was school. Be there at 7:45am, trudge through classes, try not to sleep (or get caught sleeping), inhale whatever was for lunch, play, clean, _only two periods left! You can do it!_ , then the final bell rang around 3:30pm, and _sweet freedom_. Most times, that was a queue to head to the park with friends and chat or walk with a bunch of boys to the convenience store, trying to buy as much food as possible and stuff themselves silly. Dinner was still _hours_ away, how could they resist?

Home again. A quiet welcome from mother, nothing from father until he rolled in around 9pm, satisfied and proud of his work, but exhausted all the same. Dinner was usually just with mama, except on the rare occasion when papa showed up, but it was fine. Their conversations were interesting, and the tall woman’s voice was soft, happy and strong. A nice voice, one that could be listened to all day.

Time for homework. Easy, easy, easy. How was ‘good grades’ a compliment? It was elementary school. It was the same routine, day in, day out, followed five days a week. It didn’t take a genius to be good at routine, didn’t take a genius to socialise, didn’t take a genius to be more than mediocre. But apparently people thought otherwise. Or they were overly kind, or perhaps overly stupid, not able to achieve those simple, _simple_ things themselves. Maybe they were just waiting for the inevitable crash and burn, to laugh and gossip gleefully to the neighbours.

“It couldn’t last forever, you know?”  
“Something has to give.”  
“That household is like it’s own world, too good to be true!”

They weren’t wrong.


	2. Home Alone

**I. Early Days**

**(Childhood)**

4th grade. That was the last birthday they spent as a family. 

“You’re so mature and smart, it’s okay if we travel to Osaka for a business trip, right?”

What kid wouldn’t want the house to themselves? The tone they used was awful, but if it meant a bit of freedom, who would be picky? That weekend in Osaka went well. So did the next in Hokkaido, the next in some backwards town in Shikoku. Soon they weren’t weekend trips, they’d slowly crawled and changed into week long business seminars, conferences, before any of them realised.

Yet nobody did anything about it. By the end of that year, the family that had spent so much time together hadn’t seen each other in six months.

Christmas came with a lot of apologies. One per present, a total of 36. Big in both size, cost and number, it was a nice thought. Mother and Father (Mama and Papa stopped being used after the third month they’d been gone - it was hard to use endearing terms for someone who rarely called, never came home, simply _didn’t care_ about you) tried to soothe things over, but they hadn’t been home in months, and that stung. Presents couldn’t fix the fact that everyone else’s parents came to school events and parent teacher meetings and were simply _there_ ; presents couldn’t fix the house that went bump in the night, lived in by a child dwarfed by the grandeur.

In all fairness, they were a hard working couple, supporting a kid who would _go_ places, and damnit if that wasn’t going to be the best junior high, high school _and_ university in the country. Father’s hair was losing itself, crawling further into the centre of his skull, losing it’s vibrancy to stress and jet lag. Mother’s eyes, surrounded by black circles, were carefully covered with creams and powders, while exhaustion had eaten at her frame until she was model thin. They provided their only child with everything, more than could ever be wanted or needed. They had even hired house keeping, so studies could be focussed on, and so they could go to fun activities if grades were maintained; the once loving parents hired house keeping so (theoretically) their one and only child would never be lonely. In a sense, their child was grateful, understood how hard they worked to give them a good life.

But still… Presents couldn’t, wouldn’t, didn’t, fix anything. “Thank you!” Again and again. They bought it. After all, how would the exhausted couple know they were faking? Six months alone after being dumped without a second though. Six months was a long time, enough to change someone still in their formative years.

January 3rd rolled around. Intermission ended, the second act started.A lonely little kid in a lonely house, too big for one, but there was no way of convincing the dedicated couple to come home.

Occasionally, a neighbour would pop around, ask if they could help with anything. It’d be sweet if they weren’t smirking at the coldness that seeped through the house, noting the house keeper instead of parents, gossiping to others about the sorry state the family was in.

But that was fine. Everyone got what was coming to them eventually. By 5th grade, they were the sorry ones. Every bit of gossip, of snooping, of fake kindness was paid back. Of course, it was impossible to take on take on an adult, so they did the next best thing - went after their kids.

At first, it was soft stuff. Mocking them in class, convincing the class they’d done something stupid or embarrassing. It was surprisingly easy to get everyone to join in teasing. Teachers rarely did anything - after all, it was conform or die, and the bullied child simply had not conformed. Sometimes the teasing was so light, everyone laughing as they did it that the teachers didn’t even count it as bullying, just ‘kids will be kids’. Occasionally, they were scolded, sent outside. What did that matter? It’s not like they were learning - elementary school was just pretend, a pre-game to middle school, which was another, simple, easy to play game, if you read around the rules, finding loop holes.

Sabotage was the next course. Screwing around with people’s notes, their study time, their understanding of the topic. Kids desperately tried to tell their parents _I studied! Look at my notes!_ But it never worked. Their notes were all wrong, messed up, erased, in the wrong book. Grades went down, people mocked them: _what idiots! It isn’t that hard!_ It was enjoyable, really. The parents who had wronged them, looked down at them, now had their own problems. _Maybe if they’d focussed on their own children a little more…_

6th grade rolled around. Things had gotten stale. With everyone under their thumb, scared and backing away from confrontation, they’d gotten cocky, bored. There was only one method left. Perhaps it was out of a need to get their parents attention, or purely just to keep things interesting, but the last method of childish revenge was the most risky. They weren’t scared to use it (after all, _kids will be kids_ ) but it left proof, marks, gossip. It was the easiest, a one man job, but the one they needed to be the most careful with.

Times and places were carefully chosen, as were the victims. For the most part, people were none the wiser. Of course, some people figured it out, but pining the crime to the criminal was another matter entirely. They’d honestly never cared for the house help, but the woman was doting, upper middle aged, missing the time when she could fuss over her own children, _poor thing! Parents leaving you all alone!_ , and had become soft, stupid, letting herself be fed lies. The house help, a soft spoken woman by the name of Kiyoko, became the greatest ally imaginable, turning into a fiery beast whenever the principal called up, pointing fingers and laying blame. Listening from the other side of the door, they smirked.

“- would _never_ do that! How dare you suggest such a thing? Where’s your proof?!”

And there was none. Some, perhaps, blue and purple and ugly bumps, _but that could have happened anywhere!_ Kiyoko cried. And Kiyoko was right. It was a battle of he said, she said - and this tag team always came out on top; a child of overly smart parents and the charge of a trusting, overly dedicated and devoted housekeeper; losing simply wasn’t an option.

Kiyoko fumed the entire way home, grumbling at that ‘idiot of a man’. A letter awaited them - acceptance into the local junior high school. Shrugging, they made plans to buy the uniform and everything else, Kiyoko in a considerably better mood. Time went by, more people ended up bruised, Kiyoko continued to protect the child who grew more confident, more sadistic, constantly on a power high.

The end of the year rolled around. A surprising notice arrived. Originally, there had been too many applicants for the prestigious school to handle; after some drop outs, some who couldn’t afford the exorbitant fees, some who decided they were better off elsewhere, they were in. _Kunugigaoka Junior High School._ Kiyoko cried and called their, yet again, absent parents. _Very happy_ , Kiyoko reported through an overly large smile and eyes wet with happy tears, _they’ll call you when they can._ Kiyoko prattled on about making a feast, while they shrugged; there was no point crying over spilled milk. Their happy family had long since disintegrated into nothing. There were three months left of the school year. Since they’d been accepted into their school of choice, now was the time to _truly_ have fun.

When graduation rolled around, nobody wanted to stand near, hating when they were practically shoulder to shoulder on the small assembly stage. They’d long ago giving up hiding, their actions were obvious now, but finding proof, getting punishments to stick, getting them to give a damn, was much, _much_ harder. After all, this was the genius child who never bothered with anything; their eyes were focussed, tongue sharp, mind racing at speeds far faster than most could dream, wish, _pray_ for. Nobody could hope to keep up.

But the thing that truly unnerved everyone from the principal to the smallest first year were their hands, hands that were meant to be soft, used to drawing doodles on notes, hands that were replaced with fists like rocks, sharp and worn, already tinged red and used to bruising and being bruised, coupled with a casual smirk. A demon, barely in disguise.

Smiling, Kiyoko led the way out of the assembly hall, happily prattling on about the excitement of junior high. Smirking, they thought _well, they aren’t wrong._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited the first chapter slightly to show the arcs etc  
> We’re in (for lack of a better word) “book” one - early days, arc one - childhood, which is three chapters long. The second arc is middle school (six chapters) and the character will be revealed in this arc (because gender neutral writing is really hard ;;;) Props to those that do it well! (Also props to languages that make this easier!)  
> On the plus side, this chapter is roughly three times the size of the last one. The next one should be roughly the same as this, and then they should get a little bit bigger in the next arc, with the third arc (manga canon) chapter’s being larger again.


	3. How's Things?

“Your parents are coming home for a few days!” Kiyoko was overjoyed, elated even, but that didn’t matter. Who cares? _They’ll be home a week, then they’ll be gone again. Like always._ By this stage there wasn’t even bitterness or rage - it was as it was, there was honestly no point in feeling anything. It was just easier that way.

As predicted, they returned home for the shortest amount of time possible. Just a couple of days, squished in the strange gap between the end of elementary school and the beginning of junior high. Kiyoko was joyful enough for both of them, thank god, because even their parents noticed the lacklustre acting of their child. By now, their business trips weren’t limited to Japan; often they’d visit multiple countries in a row before even considering coming home (or making a phone call, for that matter). After all, Kiyoko had constantly told them about perfect school attendance (minus the occasional illness, which even Kiyoko hadn’t figured out translated to ditching, or if she knew, perhaps she just didn’t mind), amazing grades and an almost perfect behavioural record (Kiyoko adamantly told everyone -whether they cared or were willing to listen was irrelevant- how they were always the victim, never the bully, and in ambiguous cases, they were never involved at all and the idiot principal just wanted a scapegoat). The couple had never had any reason to doubt that before, but now, seeing their moody (almost) teenager not even pretending to like them had them thinking otherwise.

Pushing his glasses up his nose, Father asked “How’s things?” It was said simply enough. They were sitting around the dinner table, finishing the feast Kiyoko had made. She’d left early, as she always did when the bosses were around. After all, she was just a replacement for them essentially, so why stay and work for longer when she was still getting the same wage for going home? (Add to that the fact she didn’t realise there was resentment from the genius child toward the parents and it made it that much easier for her to leave without worry, almost the opposite, thinking she was leaving a happy family behind to catch up on missed time.)

A light shrug, lips twitching into a slight smirk at the frown their action got in response. But what else was there to say? Things were most definitely not good, but they weren’t _bad_ \- after all, all the harassment they’d been dishing out had made things interesting, and that had been the whole point of it - mission accomplished. Apparently there was more to say. “Seriously. We heard you got into Kunugigaoka. We’re very proud of you.”

The same words were said over the phone to Kiyoko a while ago. (The promised phone call never came.) With a huff they rolled their eyes. “Its just a school.” No matter where they went they’d be a star pupil with no effort. There was no point in getting excited at something a monkey could do.

“An excellent school, the best in the area. To call the principal there a genius would be an insult.” A shrug. Who cares? This conversation was getting dull, fast. “If you do well there you can go onto the attached high school. That will practically guarantee you entrance into every university in the country.” Seriously, they hadn’t spoken in _months_ and this “how’s things?” nonsense was already turning into a ‘think about your future’ nagging session. “Have you thought about what you want to be yet?”

 _Anything but you_. They stopped themselves quickly. This conversation was already burning, there was no need to add more fuel to the flames. Biting back the words, a more delivered, rehearsed response was given. “I don’t know. Maybe something in law…” Truth be told, that was a lie - right now, there was no future goal. But Father’s eyes lit up and Mother beamed, so perhaps it wasn’t a bad thing to say. _And when you disappoint them later?_ That thought was shaken away quickly - so what if it wasn’t law? It wasn’t their life to dictate, and as long as it was respectable, bought in cash and needed a degree, they probably wouldn’t care.

“That’s wonderful! Kunugigaoka is a wonderful choice then! They’ve produced some amazing students who went on to be excellent lawyers!” Mother prattled on while they sighed, pushing around some left over potatoes. The schools had been open less than ten years, was that really enough to judge them and say they were excellent? Minutes passed, dragging on for what felt like hours, parents discussing the school and their future. It made them sick, to be honest. You can’t just dump someone and then insert yourself into their life whenever you please, acting like everything’s fine, nothings changed.

“I’m full.” Leaving the table, they stomped upstairs, ignoring Father’s demand to come back and ignoring the rice balls Mother left at their door later on.

—

The day before they left, the day before the beginning of the new school year, Father apologised. He said he understood, they hadn’t been around, he can’t just expect answers, things to be the same. (“After all, you’re not a kid anymore, huh?”) Which would have been amazing, would have made them genuinely smile, until he decided to play the “how’s things?” card again.

Groaning internally, they shrugged. “Fine, I guess.” Three words more than the other day, surely there couldn’t be any complaints this time? Clearly, the answer was still not what Father wanted, but he decided to ignore it in favour of moving the conversation forward.

“We worry about you, you know?” _Now that’s just offensive. Worry equals phone calls and letters, actually being at home, not expensive Christmas gifts and recycled apologies._ Mother answered the derisive snort that was their reply. “No, really. We don’t call as much as we should. We’re busy, but there are no excuses. We’re a family, we’re your parents, its our job to keep up with you, not the other way around. I think we’ve expected too much from you.”

Eyes flickered dangerously at that statement. _Do they think I can’t handle it? That I’m not reaching expectations?_ Mother continued, not noticing. “You’re every parents dream kid - smart, beautiful and well behaved. We’re the ones who’ve taken you for granted, we haven’t given back nearly enough for everything we’ve taken away.”

Father was the one to snort this time, thoughts written all over his face. Clearly he thought they’d given enough. “We haven’t been around, but Kiyoko has. With everything we provide, I think you’re exaggerating how much we take, dear.”

Mother’s eyes narrowed, but she shrugged gracefully, wavy hair falling over thin and sloping shoulders. “We’ll discuss that later.” A soft and kind woman for the most part, she was as stubborn as a bull and was more than happy to bully someone into agreeing with her. _No wonder she’s so successful._ A snort when the thought continued, _It’s pretty clear where I got it from now I think about it._

“We just want to make sure you’re okay. That _we’re_ okay. If you need us to stay home more, we will.” Father stirred again, but Mother glared, not bothering with politeness and mouthed _later_. “Kiyoko says you’re fine, your grades are excellent and apart from a few marks on your record, it looks like school went well. The next few years should go well for you, but if there’s anything we can do to help, make it easier, tell us, okay honey?”

Staring, they nodded slowly, taking it all in. This was the stuff they’d _dreamed_ of as a kid. The stuff that, if you had a genie, just one wish, _this_ is what they’d have used it on, second thoughts be damned. _But that was then and this is now._

 _What nice words. Shame that they’re two years too late._ Mother dragged over Father for an incredibly awkward family hug. Thankfully the neighbours had given in peeping (literally and figuratively) and gossiping when their kids had started being harassed, but if they’d seen this, the rumour mill would have start right back up and they’d be back at square one, listening to their malicious nonsense whenever they left the house.

There was a part of them that was irritated, but the pre-teen knew that by not speaking up, not being honest, they were adding to the problem. But in all honesty, they wondered: _Did any of them really want this fixed?_ Father clearly didn’t. He didn’t see a lot wrong with the situation - they worked hard to make a lot of money to look after their kid and retire early, providing them all with an excellent life. There were bound to be sacrifices. Mother wanted something to happen, but she didn’t seem to probe very deeply into the problems. By doing that, she ran the risk of creating a deeper divide between them, so she took the safer gamble, the less risky option.

 _And me?_ Lying in bed that night, they thought about what they wanted. The future was still too far away to care about, and they could achieve anything they wanted to, probably with minimal effort. Friends would be nice, but they weren’t needed, especially if they were going to nag about their methods of doing things. _For my family… a family… it’d be nice… to have one. A proper one. Like we used to be._

A little voice asked: _Why not say that? Talk to your parents._ Angrily, they shoved it aside. _They had their chance. They made their bed, now they need to lie in it._ Perhaps it was childish, perhaps it was lame, a petty form of revenge, but honestly, they didn’t care. Why try and fight to regain what was lost? Especially if a third of the party really didn’t want change? What was to stop everything from crumbling again? _And wouldn’t that hurt when everything came falling down again…_

Sighing, they got comfortable. The last thing they thought before falling asleep was, _I just want a place where I can be honest._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise for ‘they’. I really do. These few chapters are mostly experimental writing for me before I go onto my regular style. This was a bad idea lmao. It’d be a lot easier if I weren’t trying to hide the character! At least I could say 'the blonde’ or ‘their blue eyes’ or something… Well, it’s been an experience haha!
> 
> Things look to be going pretty well, I’m hoping to update twice a month~ (The next two chapters are already written and edited and I’m working on the one after, so I’ll probably start doing that in September?)
> 
> In any case, this is the final chapter of ‘Childhood’. Next we start the ‘Middle School’ segment (six chapters, containing some canon material). Reveal is next chapter~ Let me know what you thought~


	4. First Year

Kunugigaoka Junior High School was a beast of a place. It was monstrously large (to fit everyone's egos in, probably) and state of the art. The chairman of the school (and its High School sibling) had funded it all himself, and rather than everyone thinking that was ridiculous and cocky and flaunting cash, apparently it was the right type of ambitious and kind to the point of self-sacrifice ("now there's someone who thinks of the children!") . Queue the eye roll, please.

The buildings covered more ground than the local sporting field and hospital combined, and that was _without_ including the mountain that watched softly over the main campus. The principal, a somewhat attractive man with burgundy hair, discussed the mountain at great lengths in his speech at the entrance ceremony. That had been the starting ground for the school; a cram school he'd started out of a crappy abandoned building which still stood as a reminder, he said, that excellence can be born from nothing.

Half the audience was hooked, hanging on to the man's every word; even those who were previously dozing off had woken up, not hooked but listening. Perhaps they weren't interested, but they were awake (though still bleary eyed), and that was more than any other teacher had done that day. _Shame they don't realise you need money, time and talent to make anything from nothing._ Most of the speeches from the faculty had droned on, mostly to be of interest to parents, guardians and the few media crews loitering around, rather than the students sitting in straight tidy rows in front of them. The principal, on the other hand, appealed to both, and spoke without notes, unlike his predecessors, all of whom had stuttered and stumbled over words they should have memorised by now, words they wrote with their own hands.

"Excellence can be born from nothing. But those of you before me are not nothing. You are the elite students of Kunugigaoka Junior High School-" a quick murmur went around the third years, punctured with giggles while glances were spared at the group at the back of the room. This raised a few eyebrows among the new students, but the second years laughed along. Even the principal gave a slight smirk, before continuing on with his speech.

"You are already star pupils, more than worthy of being here. However-" That's when they zoned out. The speech was meant to rile people up and show that even though their were talented they needed to work hard to stay on top, to go beyond the expectations of the prestigious private school. _How boring. You'd think they'd at least wait a day or two before getting all stereotypical and dull_.

But grades and appearance were all that mattered here. Classes were divided into four levels for the first two years, five for the third. A class was the best, full of 'leaders of the future' - the Principal's own son was placed here (how much of that was bias was unknown at this point in time, though the gossip was that he was a genius, just like his father). She was in D class, the idiots of the lot. In saying that, they were still in the top 40% of the country, so it's not like they were all morons or anything. Honestly, the entrance exam wasn't that hard - you needed a pass rate of 70% or higher to make it in - that had been achieved without any study on her part, but she’d heard of people cramming for weeks on end, still not to pass or to barely make a score of 81% (C class was infinitely more desirable than D class, and so forth, despite the very few marks difference between them all).

After the principal's speech (and an applause that went far longer than necessary), there was the school song, more idiotic faculty babble and a speech by the student council president. Eventually, the ceremony met its end, with everyone being allowed to leave. Kiyoko was still hanging around, taking photos and talking to her home room teacher happily. Deciding it was best not to skip, she returned to class, blending in with the rest of the heard.

Once they were all in arranged seats (alphabetical order, but backwards, having those coming last in the alphabet sitting in the front row), their teacher introduced himself. She didn't think much of him - he wasn't attractive, he wasn't ugly, he didn't seem to be likeable or detestable. Just another person.

A few weeks went by. She aced all her tests and assessments, despite being the number one ditcher in the grade (and probably the school, if anyone was keeping count). Sensei noticed soon enough, praising her often despite her many misdemeanours. It wasn't long before her opinion of him began to change. It's not like he'd changed - if anything, she noticed that he was that much more arrogant since he seemed to be under the impression _he_ was the sole reason she was thriving. But still, it was nice to be noticed, for the right reasons, and not be nagged for those whose which were questionable. As long as she did well where it counted, what did anything else matter?

She didn't make a whole lot of friends, in class or out of it. She had enough acquaintances to get her by - a first year in C class scheduled breakdowns near her favourite vending machine every Wednesday in 3rd period (her class had music then, so she never went), a second year boy in A class who bought her milk in the 4th period on Fridays (straight after P.E. and just before lunch, so it was the best time to skip; she'd caught him buying notes and paying others to do his assignments, so he was _very_ kind to her, despite the status gap between them) and a monkey, Tera-something, in C class of her grade (occasionally she'd think of him as more than an acquaintance, but she only got as kind as calling him her favourite play thing).

When it came to assemblies, the third years stood to the far right, from lowest ranking to highest, then the lowest ranking second years, and so on, until the highest ranking first years filed in on the far left. D Class often arrived early (Sensei liked to say he was a teacher, since that was a very respectable thing to be, but he didn't actually like to work that much). The class didn't mind too much, enjoying the extra time off (except for those who were desperate to climb up the ladder some more so their parents wouldn't keep paying bribe money to keep them in the school, or out of E class, when the time came). So she watched as other students filed in, seeing the school's hierarchy at work.

A couple of students amused her - a girl who wouldn't shut up about bugs and nature, a girl who looked like she'd just come out of a b-grade vampire flick, a loud mouth girl who looked like she'd be more at home in Shibuya than a classroom and a guy who was rumoured to have disfigured eyes (later she'd admit to being more than mildly disappointed when he turned out to have perfect vision and just preferred to have his hair cover his face). There was also Isogai Yuuma, a class rep in her grade. She'd spoken to him once - he was nice enough, always having a moment to talk to anyone and was one of those earnest types who'd never set a foot wrong. He was a C class kid, missing out on B class by a few points, despite his efforts. Half the school was in love with him. The other half wanted to be him. She wasn't sure which camp she was in yet; all she knew was that sometimes she wanted to punch that stupid nice guy smile off his stupid happy face.

But most students were uninteresting. Basic nerds for the most part. Smarter than the average person, but not smart enough to be featured on a tv show or hailed as a genius. 3-A had a few of those, but they weren't interesting; brainy, sure, but anyone being tutored for hours every day by professors after school should be. Her own grade was nothing special either; a few weird looking ones (there was one boy that everyone thought was a girl despite him constantly denying it - even now bets were placed that the kid really was a girl and was just pulling them all along for a laugh), but mostly regular students. Except the five in 1-A.

They liked to call themselves the Five Virtuosos, or the Big Five. It was ridiculous, but everyone followed suit (their fanatics would defend their stupid nicknames to the death). Everyone wanted to be in their group, but they kept to themselves. Of course, they were polite to everyone else, and their leader was positively charismatic, if you were stupid enough to not see through the fake smile. But for the most part, everyone felt that they were acknowledged by the five, and that was enough. When it came to exam periods and 1-A was tutored by them, that made them feel even that much more accepted into their space. The rest of the grade was jealous of the special treatment, heck, even some of the second and third year students were jealous, all because some stupid boys decided not to let everyone else in their class drag their feet and whip them into shape.

The most boring was Koyama Natsuhiko, a science nerd. He wasn't particularly smart, in her opinion, just a dog that had been trained to remember things quickly and accurately. (His hideous laughter didn’t help either - she often wondered how the rest of the group put up with him. She would have knocked his crooked teeth out by now.) Despite being a first year, he’d already made a few people leave the Biology Club, running them out with his obsessiveness and need for memorisation. The second of the group, a nobody of sorts, was Tomoya Seo. A member of the student council and the most arrogant twat to walk the halls of Kunugigaoka Junior High (and a contender for the world’s most insufferable brat as well). He never shut up about living in America (which she would admit was kinda cool, despite not being at the top of her ‘to travel to later’ list) but the English he used… It was praised throughout the school, but she couldn’t help thinking there was just something _wrong_ with it. The third member was Araki Teppei, a member of the broadcasting club and determined to get into the media one day. She didn't like him in the slightest, but he was good at what he did and was crafty enough to get where he wanted to. That was something she could respect.

Their second in command was Sakakibara Ren, a ladies man. If she graduated without punching him she'd eat her phone. Sure, he was kinda attractive, but what the hell was with his hair? (And how did he get away with it?) His attitude sucked too. He was a sleaze, a cheap, tacky one at that, but practically all the girls swooned over him (she was glad to see vampire girl thought he was pathetic as well - sometimes she felt like she was the crazy one and not the other way around but they seemed to be on the same wavelength for this situation). Unfortunately, he was also the most social of the group, the spokes person of sorts - being a poetry nerd made him able to charm pretty much anyone, something the bottom three couldn’t do to save their life and something the top dog thought was below him.

The leader of the nerds was the principal's son, Asano Gakushuu. Those in his group had known him for years, their families all coming from old blood with plenty of money, so they knew him, and his fake charismatic personality well - why they went along with it she'd never be able to guess. Most people didn't see it, falling for the lies hook, line and sinker. Despite the fact that he was the smartest of the lot (going as far as to take the number one spot in the national mock exams), had a multitude of talents and tonnes of famous friends, she didn't respect him or like him, or even take much notice of him. Of course, when he took the stage when he was inspiring a class, or discussing ideas and events that the whole grade needed to be involved with, she listened. Part of it was so she could get the teachers off her back for having a bad attitude and not listening when she had to. Part of it was so she could mock Asano later. Mostly it was interesting to see how stupid everyone else was, and how this cocky idiot put so little effort into fooling everyone. _People are strange creatures._

_—_

The term was half way through when she got into her first real fight of the year. She'd had a few scuffles, but most had backed out pretty quick, seeing she was serious, or she'd ended it without giving them the chance to land a hit. But this one hadn't run and he'd been too big to take down without a hassle. A third year B class student. His parents were rich and famous and he thought he deserved to be treated like royalty too. Apparently that meant picking on an E class student.

It hadn't taken long for the first years to find out. Or rather, for the second and third years and all of the faculty to strike the fear of E class into them. (Even their parents were on them soon enough, breathing down their necks to make sure E class was _never_ going to be an option. Unfortunately Kiyoko had heard the news and tried to make her study more - “I know it wouldn’t be hard for you, so let's aim to get you into B class next year, okay?". She wasn't sure if Kiyoko had whispered it or she imagined it, but she was convinced she heard _just to be safe_ tacked on to the end.) E class was for those who had passed the entrance exams (and so should have been at a satisfactory level), but had consistently achieved nothing but mediocrity (if that could be called an achievement) or had landed themselves in so much hot water that they were thrown off the main campus and into the crappy building the principal had originally used for his cram school. After all, simply expelling the student wouldn't help them _learn from their mistakes_ and would be an _embarrassment for the school_ , so exiling the students into a life of bullying and humiliation was _clearly_ the best course of action.

There was no air conditioning, no proper protection from the cold, no cafeteria, no _nothing_ and only one teacher, compared to the plethora that swarmed the main campus. Usually a student teacher too, paid pittance for their efforts with a class who refused to put any effort in. They often left as soon as they could (she couldn't blame them, hiking a mountain every day didn't seem like fun), though the current teacher had been around for a while from what she heard.

Usually everyone in E class was shunned, and that included the teacher - hatred by association (idly she wondered how much the main campus teachers begged or bribed not to be designated as the E class teacher, year after year). Bullying was pretty common in a competitive school like this - even light barbs and jokes between friends could get ugly quickly, especially when exams came up. One or two points in either direction meant you had access to a social group, or you were thrown from it. The moment a student was dropped to E class (though they didn't officially move until third year, having a trial period in the last few weeks of their second year, to prepare them for the hell that they'd soon be in) they were wiped from everyone's contact list, ignored completely except for when they were being bullied. However, Yukimura Sensei was still relatively well liked. The staff didn't particularly like talking to her, but they didn't bully her as much as they had with past teachers, apparently, and even the principal smiled, not smirked, but _smiled_ at her if they passed in the hallways.

So E class were classified as scum. Associating with them made you scum, too. Unless you were bullying them - then you were helping them _understand their situation_ and _learn from their betters_. It honestly made her sick. ‘ _Role model students’ my butt. This is bullshit._ She was far from a saint (and would happily to admit to that), but she picked on other bullies for the most part, or those connected to them. She didn't kick people when they were down. She didn't berate them and bully them when they were stuck in mud and trying to get out.

Unfortunately, E class was E class. They knew their place. It was easier to stay there rather than fight the system. It was easier to roll over than fight. They fell into the roles and played their part perfectly, letting the main campus students have their way, boosting their confidence and pride in themselves while whatever pride and confidence E class had fell to pieces. Perhaps E class didn't want a knight in tarnished armour, but that was what they were going to get.

So she fought. She ended up going home bruised and exhausted, but the other guy had backed off, looking just as bad as she did (she liked to think he looked worse, but that was probably her ego talking). The E class student thanked her, stuttering, and ran off. Skipping classes for the rest of the day had been the sensible option, so she'd gone home to sleep (thankfully it was one of Kiyoko's rare days off, so she didn't need to worry about nagging and invasive questions).

Of course, she wasn't just being nice to E class for the sake of it, nor did she fight just for them. It was nice to get into a fight - with brains and a bit of speed you could beat practically anyone. It was her own confidence booster. Kunugigaoka’s system existed as a small version of the world - the strong survived and were praised and were successful, the weak were trash who scrambled to keep up, forced to deal with whatever was thrown at them without the privileges that the strong possessed. Fighting was the same - the strong made the rules, the weak had to lick their wounds and struggle to be better _next time, next time, next time,_ though they would never, _ever_ win. She didn’t like the E class system, but she couldn’t deny the power rush she got when she fought and won - the domination over someone else, the rush of pride and strength. She hated the system, but was grateful for the opportunities it presented. The atmosphere at Kunugigaoka was stifling; the various social pressures from the elite and rich students and the desperation to get the perfect grade from everyone around her made her head spin. Fighting was basic, instinctual, primal. There were few rules or standards. You either won or you lost, no in between. It was simple, almost pure in a way.

It didn't take Sensei long to notice though. She'd rescued about eleven E class students by the time he acknowledged her behaviour. He wasn’t impressed by her fighting, but up until now he’d brushed it off as an adjustment period, getting used to the new school and new boundaries; from now, he said, he’d look the other way so long as she stopped associating with E class students. He'd tried to find other ways for her to 'express herself' and ‘burn off that energy’. First he wanted her to join the judo club - “you’d be a key member of the team in no time!”, he’d said.

"No thanks, I'm in the kitaku-bu~" He was irritated, so he tried to keep her in with detention (she didn't go), and upping the difficulty of classwork. The difficulty didn't bother her, but her classmates were freaking out, and Sensei couldn't keep up, so he gave in. Eventually, he gave up altogether.

"You're only my responsibility for a few more months. Don't be too much of a problem, alright?" She agreed, being childish and crossing her fingers behind her back as she smiled. She went back to what she was doing, skipping and fighting when she felt like it. She'd been right, after all; junior high was an advanced version of elementary school, slightly more difficult but an easy enough game to play if you could get the rules to work in your advantage. In her case, it wasn’t that she got the rules to work in her favour, it was more that teachers didn't want to rock the boat; they wanted to enforce the rules, but she didn't listen and didn't accept punishments, so it was easier to just look the other way, letting her make her own path.

Apart from a few more fights and her frequent skipping, there was nothing else to note for the term. Mid-terms had come and gone without any problems. She hadn’t studied much but had still passed easily. Kiyoko wasn’t pleased at the grades though - “only 75%? You should be doing better than that. This is middle school, you know?”. There was even talk of a tutor, which she pleaded against. It was the first time she’d actually been _angry_ at the woman.

_She’s not even related to me! Who does she think she is, scolding me like that? Especially when I’m at the top of the class without any effort?_ Sure, she agreed that if she put effort in, it wouldn’t be absurd to say A class would easily be in her reach. With a decent study routine she could probably take the top of A class to top it off. But that wouldn’t be fun - that would simply start the slow, steady grind that she’d feel for the rest of her life. _That_ was something she wasn’t interested in.

There were some arguments on the matter, but Kiyoko gave in. “Make sure you do better in the finals, alright? Otherwise I _will_ be calling your parents. They don’t work so hard for you to goof off at such an expensive school!” Nodding, she agreed. She came through, of course - she looked like she was studying all the time and boosted her lowest grade in the finals to 82%. But after that discussion, Kiyoko had ceased to be her ally. The parents card was a bullshit one. By saying stuff like that made her feel like a doll, something for adults to control and manipulate, without giving her any free will or decision making responsibility. Her parents didn’t work hard just for her - sure, that was a part of it, but it wasn’t the whole story. On top of that, if people thought she was trying to impress them, or they deserved good grades from her, they had another thing coming. If they wanted her to do her best for them, they needed to do their best for her - and for her, that meant _being there_.

The rest of the term was mostly uneventful. Golden Week had come and gone far too quick for anyone’s liking. The rainy season made everything miserable and caused their schedules to be endlessly shuffled, trying to keep up with the downpour. She didn’t participate in many events, seeing no point. There was no joy in being stuffed onto a bus with sweaty, yammering middle schoolers and she had no desire to win matches for sports she didn’t care for. Most of the big activities would come later in the year - at this rate, she’d skip them too.

The last day of the first term rolled around, hot and sweltering. Everyone was eager to leave, some almost in tears they were so exhausted by the rigorous regime demanded by the school (idly she wondered how many would be back next term). Like everyone, she was ready to bolt - there was a new video game that came out today, after all. The day dragged on, tension slowly growing until the final home room started. There was a buzz in the air, almost like electricity, made partly by the sounds of the student’s increasing chatter and the waving (and smacking) of their towels and bugs sounding in the background. By now, the difference between Class D and a zoo was separated by a very fine line.

“Aoki Minami." A high pitched voice responded. She was already half way out the door when her name was called. _Thank god for sitting in the back row._

"Akabane Karma."

“Here!” And then she wasn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the first day of the second term for me~ I'm really happy to see all of my students again! I missed them more than I thought I would haha!
> 
> Kitaku-bu - the ‘returning home’ club. i.e no club. It’s often frowned upon and the term is used slightly insultingly, but Karma would make it his own lmao (speaking of which sometimes in my notes I refer to Karma as he, sometimes as she, mainly because there are some things that Karma, regardless of gender, would do, and some things that Karma would do only as a male or female, and also sometimes I just type whatever feels better at the time lol)
> 
> For Kunugigaoka I tried not to make it too fancy. After all, you do still need some average students - not only for $$$ (bribe money too) but also to make E class (not to mention in season 2 Kayano says there are better schools out there). So I decided on having them be the top 40% of the country (which covers a whooooole lot of ground, especially considering the amount of students in Tokyo alone) and their entrance exam works like this: if you get a 95 or higher (out of 100) you're A class, 88-94 is B, 81-87 is C and 70-80 is D class. I'm crap with maths (100% not in the top 40% lmao) so if none of that makes sense please tell me!!!  
> I'm not sure if I made the assembly layout clear, but this is what it looks like:   
> 1a 1b 1c 1d 2a 2b 2c 2d 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e (2 lines for each class)
> 
> Ah, when talking about Seo’s English… The way English is taught in Japan is honestly pretty bad (at least at my schools), so I don’t really want Karma to have amazing knowledge of English (not to mention that English is only compulsory for the last two years of elementary, and thats basic stuff like “how many pencils” (sometimes its “how many pencils do you have” but that really throws the kids off - they don’t write it they just speak for the most part) and by the first term of JHS they basically recap the two years of elementary and learn numbers and the alphabet (why this isn’t taught in ES I have no idea…)). 
> 
> Yeah, Kunugigaoka is probably much more fancy and educated than my schools (most of the country uses one of three sets of textbooks iirc, but Asano Papa probably made his own or got something a bit more upper class lol), but I still can’t imagine them having done more than the first year of work + ES Catch Up in the first term, since the basics need to be taught and really drilled in (I’d imagine Kunugigaoka probably drills better pronunciation into their students than the average school, which takes a long time considering the differences between English and Japanese). Though in saying that, they don’t really do speaking exams - it’s writing/reading/listening for the most part, so as long as you can memorise and pick up grammar patterns, you really don’t need to speak. A lot of exams are just rephrased parts of the textbook, so memorising the textbook is also a pretty easy way of ensuring a decent grade - as such, a lot of kids struggle to make their own original sentences (including at least half of my 3rd yr JHS students). Seo, on the other hand, would have to have made his own sentences to live overseas, so he’s probably at a higher level than most kids right now, even if his dialect is off.
> 
> Obviously, by the sports festival in 3rd year Karma’s English is pretty top notch, but I honestly think that is due more to Karma’s effort, Koro Sensei’s rad study methods and Bitch Sensei’s lessons. As such, right now Karma is still above average in the classroom, but considering it’s mostly memorisation/wrote learning, that doesn’t equate to fluency or understanding, so Seo more than likely is the most fluent at this point in time (excluding Asano, but we don’t know when he learnt English so… -shrug-). (Also I find it hilarious he lived overseas but doesn’t speak the standard dialect - chances are he either had a teacher who didn’t/couldn’t teach the standard dialect, or if he went to a school, pretty much everyone was fucking with him all the time, which is honestly beautiful. My kids who have lived overseas speak standard dialect from where they stayed and they’re ES so the fact he can’t makes me laugh every time (I shouldn’t because that’s rude and bullying but he’s a twat so w/e))
> 
> Let me know what you think of the chapter~ (and sorry for the rant lmao)


	5. Sonic Ninja

Summer holidays were nice. Six weeks of no school, no nagging, no nothing - just freedom and bliss. She’d done her homework as soon as it had been assigned - as much as she preferred lazing about, summer holidays should be spent enjoying summer, so leaving homework to the last minute didn’t appeal to her in the slightest. Most students were struggling with their homework and various club activities (the goody two-shoes son of the principal was helping out with the basketball, volleyball _and_ soccer teams, and had apparently asked for extra study materials) - she was sitting at home playing video games, unless she was trying to beat the smothering heat by sleeping the day away. Of course, it was summer, so she occasionally went out - after all, there was nothing better than a strawberry _au lait_ after beating up some half baked punks.

It was when she was out one day that she saw one of her classmates. _Shiota Nagisa_. They’d never really spoken - he was quiet and well behaved and _nice,_ and she… well, wasn’t. She’d honestly laughed when she first heard the rumours about him. People had joined in, glad to see her laughing happily, rather than that slightly crazed laugh she gave after beating someone to a pulp. Of course, they didn’t really get _why_ she was laughing so hard. She’d thought it hilarious that her classmates (and a fair portion of the school, if they were honest), thought this small little brat was tricking them all. After all, wasn’t that her job? A girl dressed in boys clothing, yet here was Nagisa constantly being called a girl and having to deny it every time, trying to prove himself without doing the obvious.

The only reason she got away with her uniform, the one she'd bought for the first junior high that had accepted her, was because most of the teachers didn't want to rock the boat and make her mad. Seeing her short hair in a boyish style and hearing her rough way of speaking, the uniform staff had thought she was a boy when she went for her fitting - she hadn’t bothered to correct them. (She hadn’t bothered getting a new uniform at Kunugigaoka, citing the massive expense, though really she was just lazy and her current uniform was comfortable). Everyone assumed she was a guy after seeing her in the uniform (because really, crossdressing wasn’t talked about for normal people, it was only for trendy celebrities and _tarento_ , and the fact that a young girl would crossdress into such unflattering, boring clothes didn’t even cross their minds). However, those who did know weren’t able to convince her to wear the right uniform (or even just a female uniform, which school it belonged to be damned) or didn’t want to admit to making a mistake, so it wasn’t as simple as making her wear the right uniform. If she suddenly changed half way through the term, or even at the start of the new term, there would be questions and staff would have to admit to being _human_ and not being _infallible_ , while the student body would become a hive of gossip and questions, disrupting learning and just causing unnecessary difficulties.

So far, the Principal had said nothing on the issue, an oddity considering his controlling nature, leaving the teachers confused as to which path was the best to take. Deciding to ignore it (the easiest, safest, _quietest_ option), they’d left her to her own devices. It helped that she was rarely seen without the jacket and she had practically no chest (looking at her mother, she doubted that would change any time soon). Her height and rough attitude helped to present her as male, though the teachers were admittedly concerned with her casually following the boys in to their health lessons or sports periods (when they realised she rarely went to either class and didn’t cause trouble (for once) when she did go, the whole matter was practically dropped, the teachers already wanting to be done with her and groaning at the thought that their journey with her had barely started). Honestly, it didn’t matter to her if people thought she was a boy or a girl - she was Karma, and that was really all that mattered. Gender was pretty useless for the most part, though it led to some interesting situations, like the one Nagisa was in.

She felt a little bad for him. She couldn’t imagine it, but it would probably suck constantly being told that you were _something_ when you clearly believed, clearly _knew_ , you were something _else_. It honestly didn’t matter to her whether Nagisa was actually a girl pretending to be a boy or was truly a boy - Nagisa was Nagisa, just as she was Karma.

When she saw him in the holidays, he was reading a magazine in Tsutaya. Usually she would have kept walking, but the cover piqued her interest (it helped that she could feel the almost ice-cold air-conditioning from where she stood, enticing her to come in and browse instead of walking through the barely cooled shopping centre). _Sonic Ninja_. The image took up most of the cover, a character dressed as a somewhat futuristic ninja was throwing what appeared to be modified shuriken, the text around it declaring new information, first seen here! Sonic Ninja was a franchise, coming from an American comic book series and had gathered popularity and international interest quite quickly. A game had come out not long ago. She’d snuck up behind the boy, glancing at the article over his shoulder.

“For real? Nazzoni directed Sonic Ninja?”

Nagisa hadn’t heard her coming. She wasn’t surprised - she was stealthy and quiet, lessons learned and improved on from her many fights. However, the redhead was surprised by how quick he turned, the top of his head almost knocking her chin, and the somewhat calm look in his eyes when their gazes met. Most people would have jumped, squealed maybe, before yelling their annoyance at being spooked. But the boy barely budged, gazing calmly at her. She felt something prickle on the back of her neck - _just the AC cooling sweat,_ she told herself, not believing that such a small kid could make her feel uncomfortable _._ She didn’t think much of it, watching as the smaller student re-looked at the magazine, pointing at a bit in the article he’d been reading with his finger. A moment’s pause before he replied. “Yeah! He did!”

It occurred to her that they’d never really spoken before. That body really knew her interests or anything about her. They’d exchanged words, sure, but they’d never had a proper conversation; Karma could probably count all the words she’d said to him with both hands, and most of them were probably jabs about his height or ‘ _ohayou’_. Pushing on ahead, she started to make small talk. It wasn’t something the redhead usually did (she could check the weather just fine for herself, thank you very much, and no, she _truly_ did not give a shit about you or your pet rabbit or whatever other bullshit you were blabbing about), but for some reason, she’d decided to go for it. _The heat must be affecting me._

“How cool is that! He’s my favourite director, y’know?” She peaked at the magazine again. “Ooh, it opens today? Let’s go, Shiota!”

Surprisingly, the other boy went along with it. The theatre was cold and quiet, not too crowded. The movie was pretty good too. Not one of Nazzoni’s best, but not half bad. Nagisa was a huge fan of the series, so it was easy for her to just fall into step, letting him talk without interruption. She’d played the game when it had come out (she’d been slightly bored, it’d been _way_ too easy), but hadn’t read the comics, so hearing Nagisa’s explanations and the background of the world gave the game a bit more depth, things clicking and making more sense, making scenes and dialogue that little bit more interesting. Easter eggs for fans, stuff casual players wouldn’t get without understanding the whole world.

They ended up spending the rest of the day together. The duo talked about other things they liked, about school, friends, holidays and the future. (As much as they could; Nagisa’s plans for the future seemed set in stone, but she had a feeling they weren’t his ideas…) It turns out they had more in common than she’d originally thought, and despite being a quiet little mouse, Nagisa was cooler than she’d given him credit for. She went out on a limb and invited him over - another first for her.

“Not today, of course,” she added quickly, feeling slightly hot under the collar of her shirt ( _damn heat_ ), “but someday, maybe?” The heat became less prickly as he smiled, saying he’d like to. Her hands felt clammy and she wanted to kick herself for overreacting but she tried to play it cool, casually waving goodbye after they exchanged numbers and phone addresses.

They met up again numerous times during the holidays. Karma lent Nagisa her game (and the console, since Nagisa didn’t have one; he’d protested fiercely, but she boasted she could buy twelve tomorrow and still not worry about money). She lied, saying she barely used the old thing anymore, but the circles under her eyes betrayed her; up until the night before she’d been spending a ridiculous amount of hours trying to beat as many games as possible, since she really didn’t know if when (if?) she’d get the machine back.

But still, it was nice, standing by the river and explaining different combos and stuff. Karma had never really realised how isolated she was - she was social, sure, but when it came to her hobbies, people just assumed it was fighting and being a hell raiser. It felt _normal_ to just chat with someone about a shared interest. Nagisa’s mother wasn’t convinced that gaming systems were all that fun or important (Karma thought she was probably one of those ‘video games makes you violent’ people, or just incredibly stingy and awful), so it was the first time he’d been able to play a lot of the games. (She wasn’t sure when she started calling him Nagisa-kun instead of Shiota, though the smaller boy said he preferred that to his last name, so she didn’t question it.)

In return, Nagisa lent her as many of the comics as he could carry (she teased him for being so small and feminine, to which he’d rolled his eyes and called her a giant). “I’ll bring more to school, okay?” She nodded and they went out to enjoy the rest of the day. She devoured the books that night, and tried not to let on how bored she was now that she’d lost her favourite console and her new found entertainment so quickly.

When holidays were over and a new seating arrangement was given to them on the first day of class, they’d both smiled, glad to sit next to their new best friend.

—

The second term was mostly uneventful. A few people had been weirded out that small, nice Nagisa was friends with crazy Karma, but they let it be. Nagisa hadn’t gone bonkers over night, and nobody wanted to question Karma, so it was best just to leave it. Relatively quickly Kunugigaoka had the annual sports festival. Nagisa might have been her best friend, but she wasn’t gonna lie - he sucked. Most people, just like any other challenge, competition or subject, were average - it was how the world worked. Those on sporting teams did relatively well (which was a surprising amount of her classmates, known for their brawn and not their brains, including a baseball nerd called Sugino who even their lazy Sensei acknowledged as the class’ MVP).

Karma had participated in as little as possible. She was really only there since Nagisa had asked and Sensei wouldn’t shut up about calling her parents (instead of Kiyoko). With the little effort she put in, she got the poor results that she expected. Sensei huffed, irritated, but knew he couldn’t complain - she’d attended, as threatened, and bullying her for not being excellent at sports would make him look like a dick (Kunugigaoka expected excellence in every field, but if you had to pick either sports or academics, it had better be academics).

Despite that, she’d had fun. When the day was over, Nagisa had invited her to go get something to eat. She’d agreed immediately; Kiyoko had one of her rare days off, so it’s not like dinner was waiting for her. What she hadn’t realised was that this wasn’t one of ‘their’ things. Sugino, Isogai, Maehara and a guy called Mimura had tagged along.

She wasn’t sure why, but she was kinda pissed. She didn’t speak as often as usual, not quite angry, prompting Nagisa to ask if she was okay. She shrugged, rolling off the questions. When he asked again, she just said she’d been studying late last night and tried to look like she was enjoying herself.

Nagisa didn’t buy it.

For some reason, he looked a bit hurt as her charade went on. Nobody else noticed anything, laughing and stuffing their faces with greasy fries and burgers that barely stayed together. At the end of the night, exhausted with the strange angry feeling and her acting, the redhead said her goodbye as quickly as she could without appearing too rude, and left. Someone must have said something, because she heard Maehara say “Well, that’s just Akabane for you, y’know?”

She took the long way home, not in any rush to return to the empty house. Walking through the playground, she’d found kids out after curfew. Smiling, she sent them home, running with their tails between their legs. The good mood lasted until she got home.

Lying in bed, she thought more of the day, still pissed that Nagisa hadn’t mentioned it wasn’t going to be them, annoyed that he’d had the nerve to invite other people, irritated at her own jealous attitude. Kiyoko had often teased her, saying she would fall in love and have a nice boyfriend and she’d _want_ to wear the girl’s uniform and be cute _for him_. She’d scoffed, irritated and annoyed at the suggestion she’d change so drastically for someone.

She didn’t sleep that night, wondering if Kiyoko was right.

—

As soon as the sports festival ended, the teachers started harassing them about exams. Midterms weren’t far, so by extension, neither were the final exams. Every day was filled with cramming and facts and figures and useless information that would never be of use to them in the real world. She’d studied harder than she had previously, making Kiyoko back off. Ever since the sports festival, Karma had thought about her words.

Of course, Kiyoko had noticed her intense thinking. “It’s a boy, right dear~?” Karma had wanted to hit her. After one jest too many, they’d ended up in a fight - their first. It had made her feel sick. The woman had stopped being her ally, but she was still the only consistent force in her life. Despite the woman’s bustling, tidying and pottering around the house, it felt cold when they weren’t speaking to each other. There was a lump in her throat and it hurt to get words past it.

Eventually, the redhead had stood in the lounge room, hovering between the doorway and the tv, which Kiyoko was dusting. Kiyoko could only ignore her for so long before she had to acknowledge her. She spoke, but Karma couldn’t hear. Her ears felt blocked and her neck heated up. Looking down, she scuffed her foot on the floor, giving a choked mumble (Karma wasn’t certain, but she _thought_ the words ‘sorry’, ‘my bad’ and ‘want some tea?’ had merged into a messed up sentence). She felt more than heard Kiyoko’s sigh, the breath ruffling her hair. The woman’s arms closed around her. “I know. I know.”

Things never really went back to being normal, but the redhead felt she could breath properly after that. She could stand straight again and not feel like the whole house was pining her down with unseen pressure. Kiyoko laid off the teasing and she hit the books. Her lowest score was an 85%, her highest made Kiyoko call her parents happily - “90%! At such a prestigious school! Do you want to talk to her? …Ah, I see of course, my apologies, try to call and congratulate her when you can, okay?”.

(Kiyoko didn’t know she was listening. She knew that the phone call would never come. They both did. Her parents proved them right. She decided if a 90% wasn’t going to be good enough, nothing would. There was no point in trying to impress people who couldn’t be impressed.)

After the sports festival, things with Nagisa had been a little rocky. She’d been angry and a bit bitter, he’d been hurt and confused. But by the time November ended, Karma knew Kiyoko was full of shit. She was most certainly not in love with Nagisa.

It had taken her a while (including two weeks of not associating with Nagisa _at all_ because she was so irritated that he’d invited _other people_ to _their thing_ ) but she’d figured it out. Nagisa was the friend. Not _her_ friend, or _a_ friend. He was _the_ friend. Her _only_ friend. Part of her was bitter because she clearly wasn’t _his_ only friend. Not that she was surprised; he was a decent guy and could adapt himself to most groups of people. He didn’t rub people the wrong way and wasn’t obnoxious or rude like she was.

But that still stung. He’d often said that his mother was strict so he couldn’t always hang out with her, but how much of that was true, and how much of that was him hanging out with other people and not being honest? She tried to shrug it off, tried not to worry. As long as Nagisa was her friend (and really, she _knew_ she monopolised him more than anyone else, Karma _knew_ she was overreacting), did it really matter if he had other friends? It had crept on her, but Karma found herself thinking along the lines of ‘other friends won’t lend him consoles like I do’, ‘other friends won’t-’. When she caught herself, she stomped down on those thoughts immediately, not liking how possessive and arrogant the words were. _Kiyoko’s_ _wrong_ _. We’re_ _friends_ _._ _Just_ _friends._

Nagisa had ended their feud, bringing more comics. “I’m almost done with the game too. I’m sorry it’s taking me so long to beat it.” He was sheepish, smiling a bit nervously as he said it, wondering if she’d talk to him at all, or if she’d publicly reject him in front of the entire class. (Everyone had figured out they weren’t talking, none were surprised. “It’s Akabane, after all.” “Sucks for Nagisa though.” “At least he tried. Surprised he got that far, really.”)

She shrugged, giving a lazy smile in return. “No biggie. That boss on level 50 is pretty tough, huh?”

It was like a reset button had been pressed. Things didn’t go back to how they were (anyone who said things could go back to the old ways was an idiot; people rarely forgot, even if they tried their best), but they could move forward. They didn’t talk about why they fought or even apologise. A bridge had been built and for now, that was enough.

It wasn’t something Karma liked to admit, but the other reason she’d been bitter was that she wasn’t, and would _never_ be, someone like Nagisa, who _could_ have multiple friends. Someone kind, simple, smooth (without all the jagged edges like Karma); someone who thought of others and worked to the best of their ability towards goals, someone who wasn’t the main character in the story, but a character nobody could hate.

Thinking of that made her angry, and a part of her liked to blame her parents for not being around and forcing her to socialise and not be a spoilt brat like Kiyoko allowed her to. A part of her just wanted to ignore her shitty attitude completely.

A part of her just wanted to stick to Nagisa’s side forever. If she couldn’t be the sun, at least she could latch on and reap the benefits, the warmth, the social status (friends and outings included), the in-jokes and always being able to have someone to talk to. _Just like a leech._

—

Finals came around. Her grades stayed the same. Kiyoko had gone to meet her teacher during the holidays, to ask for a class transfer. Karma didn’t know until dinner two weeks later, when Kiyoko presented her with a feast. A banner was stuck on the wall: Congratulations on your transfer! (“ _This will be in affect from the new term! How exciting! It’s just what we’ve been striving for!”)_

The redhead felt like she’d been hit with a truck. The lump was back in her throat and her eyes started to prickle. She bit the inside of her cheek, tasting blood. Pain she could deal with. Emotions… not so much. She’d yelled until she was hoarse, Kiyoko refused to listen. Running, the redhead left the house, throwing the door open so fast it bounced back, trying to slam shut, but the energy in her throw made it launch back open again.

She ran. Snow fell lightly. The park near her house was abandoned, the biting cold keeping children indoors. Sitting on the jungle gym, she messaged Nagisa. She tried a few times, fingers hitting the screen of her smart phone heavily, mistakes adding up. Stopping, she took a deep breath and wrote it how it was.

*Akakarma1 ~ I’ll be in C class from next term (Read: 9:57pm)

*Nagisa00 ~ Oh… (Read: 9:58pm)

 _Oh…_ _That’s a good way to sum things up._ She’d tried to reason with Kiyoko. Her _only friend_ was in D class. There wasn’t a huge difference between the two, grade wise. If she kept her grades up, why couldn’t she just stay in D class? (Kiyoko would have none of it, telling Karma that C class was better for her future, that she knew what was best for her, making the irritated teen want to scream.) Another message came through with a small chime.

*Nagisa00 ~ Congratulations! You studied really hard, right? (Read: 10:05pm)

It sounded forced. It looked forced. Like something you’re _meant_ to say, rather than something Nagisa would _actually_ say.

*Akakarma1 ~ I don’t want to go (Read: 10:11pm)

She got no response. What could Nagisa even say to that? _Sorry?_ How dull. If Nagisa was smarter, he could move to C class too. If Karma tutored him, maybe that would be possible for next year. She crushed that idea, knowing that Nagisa struggled as it was, even with the help she gave him now. _Maybe if I get into more fights, or act stupid… It doesn’t matter if I’m smart, if my grades don’t reflect it, I’ll drop down again._

The threat of her parents being called made her squash that idea. As far as she was concerned, they’d removed themselves from her life, so what she did was none of their concern. If she could do something to keep them in the dark, she would. Ideas ran through her head, each as lame as the last. Eventually, she wandered back home. Kiyoko had left the key in the letter box, an angry note on the counter (the paper showed pressure marks, like Kiyoko had written other notes on top of the paper; sure enough, the tattered remains of prototype notes lay in the bin, some being scribbled on furiously, some being completely torn, an angry pen the weapon of choice) - the food was in the fridge and she was taking the next few days off.

Karma moped. Nagisa had returned her game and console, but she couldn’t be bothered playing, her limbs felt heavy and cold. She ignored the idea of a shower and crawled into bed. The untouched pile of Sonic Ninja comics Nagisa had given her on the last day of term sat on her desk. She’d been excited to read about the new arc - a new villain was making his appearance and Nagisa had said he was the most interesting yet (the redhead didn’t really share his opinions on the series, but he talked about it with such enthusiasm it was hard not to get caught up in it).

Kiyoko didn’t get it. “You’ll still go to the same school. You can hang out after school. Stop being so dramatic about a boy you don’t even like!” (Why it had to continuously go back to whether she romantically liked someone she’d never understand.)

Kiyoko didn’t get they wouldn’t be able to eat lunch together like they always did. Kunugigaoka was a fancy school, so they had a cafeteria instead of regular kyuushoku, where they would all be locked in the class together, and while it wasn’t a rule per se, the teachers did their best to ensure that the class would sit as close as possible and go straight back to class when they’d finished eating. After all, any time that could be used for study needed to be utilised properly.

Kiyoko didn’t get they wouldn’t be able to pass notes under the desks anymore. She didn’t get Nagisa’s grades would probably drop without her prompting; if they weren’t in the same class, she couldn’t help as much as she did. Nagisa had study sessions after school to try and make up for his grades; there was no chance to hang out during the week, and if his mother could help it, they probably wouldn’t get to hang out on weekends either (the woman had never particularly liked Karma, and the feeling was mutual, but now that Karma was ‘better’ than Nagisa, she could use that to force Nagisa to study more and keep him from mucking around).

Kiyoko didn’t get that Nagisa kept Karma out of trouble, waking her up if she dozed off in class, made her skip class less and kept her from harassing too many people. She’d been in less fights, she snarked at the teachers less, she actually attended homeroom most days. The smaller of the two encouraged Karma to come to class more often than she would have otherwise, despite Karma’s obvious boredom and irritation with going. _Kiyoko just doesn’t get it._

It was midnight. Well, 12:01am. Her phone chimed again.

*Nagisa00 ~ Merry Christmas Karma-kun. Happy birthday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! This marks the start of two chapters a month! Which would be great if I didn't have massive writer's block on chapter 7 lmao. October should get two chapters, but I'm also going to be on holidays so I don't know if I'll have internet access. We'll see!! 
> 
> Idk filler I guess? Nagisa starts becoming prominent from here, but I’m going to start bringing in the other E class kids too (chances are Karma was in class with more than one or two of them - we never see any introductions in the show and he kinda falls in with most of the guys + Rio without effort, so I’m assuming they knew each other to some degree previously - but lets be real, a redhead violent genius is going to stick out regardless, so at least everyone knew of him lol). 
> 
> Taranto = talent. They’re basically celebrities, often of the non-musical or acting type, but they can be anything really. Uniforms can be expensive here, so it isn’t uncommon for transfer students to not buy a uniform straight away - since I put Karma on the waiting list and accepted as a last minute thing, it wouldn’t be unrealistic for her to have already bought a uniform elsewhere. (How this would work for all three years means she either bought a super large size and took up/in the hems, taking them down/in as she grew, or she was already a giant by the time she bought it and barely grew in three years, before having that massive growth spurt later lol) When you get a mobile in Japan you get your number but you also get a mail address - hence ‘phone address’. 
> 
> Looking at the schedule for my area, school finishes on the 22nd of December while Karma finds out the news on the 24th (and Nagisa’s and Karma’s conversation goes on until the next morning). School goes back in the second week of January, just so you know the timeline.  
> (Also, Scrivener, I love you, but you gotta stop autocorrecting Nagisa to ‘nags’)


	6. Home Visit

Karma was miserable. It was the holidays, her birthday and Christmas and New Years, but she was the most miserable she’d ever been. There were plenty of reasons she should be ecstatic, like the fact it _was_ winter break, the thin dusting of snow across the city, presents and cake for her birthday, good food and parties for the holiday season… but if anything those reasons made her more irritated because she knew she _should_ be enjoying them. Her and Kiyoko were back on non-speaking terms. Kiyoko refused to budge so Karma refused to speak to her. Kiyoko kept talking, telling her how childish she was being, but that only encouraged her to be more of a brat.

She was bitter. And she’d continue to be bitter for a long time. Kiyoko probably had her best interests in mind, and she probably thought she was doing the best thing for her while her parents were absent. Karma understood that. She respected the woman for trying to raise her decently (because everyone knew she didn’t make it easy) and she appreciated her efforts. But they had very different opinions on what was best for her. Kiyoko believed that a higher ranking class would help her in the future (Karma agreed to an extent, but wasn’t middle school too early? Isn’t that really only relevant in high school and university? Karma wasn’t even sure she knew what she wanted to be yet!), while Karma was more of the opinion that being with her only friend was more beneficial to her (Kiyoko was positive she could make friends in her new class without hassle - Karma didn’t tell her she’d beaten up C Classes’ representative on more than one occasion and knew it wasn’t wise to mention her other digressions against the rest of the class either).

So when she woke up, she found Kiyoko had already been to visit (despite the fact she was scheduled to work all day today). There was a small present, a note and food in the fridge (chicken, salad, and a much smaller cake than usual). Their Christmas routine normally consisted of having a feast and watching crappy festive movies together. _Not this year, I guess._ Things change. Sometimes for the better, but Karma didn’t really see anything good about moving classes, or about Kiyoko having full control of her. _What a shitty way to start the day._

Her birthday had never been particularly important to her. It was often overshadowed by Christmas parties from people who knew nothing about the holiday and just wanted an excuse to drink and go to karaoke in the middle of the week. People were busy with New Year’s parties as well, pushing her celebrations back further. Her parents rarely remembered to call or write, and nowadays she just got cash instead of presents. Eventually there was no point in wanting a normal birthday so she gave up. Why celebrate another year of getting older? It seemed to her like the longer you lived, birthdays became less of a ‘congratulations on growing up’ and more of a ‘congratulations for not dying yet’ and who needed reminding of the inevitable?

Looking through the fridge for lunch (fourth time in the last twenty minutes; she was _so bored_ and tired and _irritated,_ nothing seemed good), Karma heard her phone go off. Grabbing it, she saw a message from Nagisa.

*Nagisa00 ~ Do you have plans for today? (Read: 10:12am)

Of course she didn’t. But if she said that, Nagisa would want to hang out. She was in a foul mood and she didn’t want Nagisa to have to deal with that. He hadn’t done anything wrong (a small voice at the back of her mind tried to say that Kiyoko hadn’t either, but she steadfastly ignored it) so it’d be unfair to hang out with him and make him miserable too. She waited for a while before answering, eventually deciding just to be honest.

*Akakarma1 ~ Nah, but I’m in a pretty foul mood today (Read: 10:30am)

She didn’t hear anything back. Shrugging it off, she put a shitty movie on. If Kiyoko wanted to break tradition, _fine_ , but she wasn’t going to. (Still, she couldn’t fully deny that Kiyoko breaking tradition stung - not particularly because of the tradition, or because of Kiyoko or their fight, but because it was one of her few remaining constants.) Half way through the movie, the doorbell rang. Idly, the redhead looked at the door and decided she was comfortable, sprawled across the couch under an oversized blanket, so she ignored it. It rang again. She wasn’t expecting a delivery (they probably would have called out by now anyway, asking her to collect her goddamn package) so she stayed seated - _probably the NHK man or something_.

On the third ring she got up. Stomping across the lounge, she hoped the other person could hear her annoyance. Opening the door with much more force than necessary, her snark died in her throat. Nagisa stood there, wrapped in a stupidly puffy jacket (she swore he was going to drown in it), holding a neatly wrapped box.

“Happy birthday, Karma-kun!”

—

Karma had simply stared when Nagisa had offered her the cake, saying it wasn’t much, but he hoped it was good anyway. The smaller of the two had pushed past her as he was talking, not giving her a chance to think or shove him out. “After all, you did say I could come visit one day, right?”

She couldn’t deny that. She also couldn’t deny that it was out of character for Nagisa to push his way into someone’s house. (Though there was that weird prickling feeling on the back of her neck again; she couldn’t blame summer, heat or the air conditioning this time. She put away a mental note for later to think about it more later, wondering how someone could have practically no presence, how someone so small could put her on edge.) Karma tried to shrug it off - everyone was entitled to change or a weird day, and knowing his mother, Nagisa probably just needed and excuse to get out of the house.

Sometimes it was weird being Nagisa’s friend. He was friendly to everyone, an average student, not particularly a stand out when it came to looks or talent or anything really, but there was _something_ that was there that she couldn’t place. There was times where he’d be bolder than normal and just did things without thinking - for someone who lived with a woman like Hiromi, that was odd. His mind always raced, trying to figure out her moves and feelings, ensuring he could make the best decision possible, reduce the risk as much as he was able, so to just _do_ , was a bit strange.

Then there were times when Karma got into brawls when they were walking together. Nagisa never got involved, but for a relatively quiet and soft personality (at least compared to hers), he didn’t flinch, didn’t back away, was never uncomfortable, even when bones cracked and blood spilled. He just stood and watched, holding her bag while she went wild. In fact, a few times he’d laughed afterwards - not at anyone, not out of spite, just as a “oh that’s Karma-kun for you” type thing, as if watching your best friend beat up a gang of punks was a normal, every day thing that most middle schoolers experienced.

It. Was. _Weird._

She didn’t like to think about it, because there was just too much that Karma couldn’t predict, too much the redhead didn’t know and couldn’t guess or find out without smashing the boy to pieces, finding out how he ticked and placing him back together, piece by piece. What Karma couldn’t deny, however, was that there was some type of strength in Nagisa. There was something untapped within him. She wasn’t necessarily afraid of it, but Karma was definitely not comfortable with it. There was something there that made Nagisa different, in a way nobody else had picked up, in a way that unnerved her and put her on edge at times.

But the redhead couldn’t help but smile anyway - it was nice to have people who would celebrate her birthday without any obligations. She put all strange thoughts to the side. There was nothing she could do about them now. Plus, she’d invited Nagisa over and never got around to organising anything - she had to make up for being a lousy host, right?

In all honesty, the day was nothing special. They watched movies and played video games and ate food from the convenience store. It was really just a normal day, something they’d do when they were hanging out in the city, apart from the cake. Nagisa had sheepishly apologised that it was either cake or a present and he’d decided on the former because “you already seem to have everything, y’know?”. He’d been a bit embarrassed when he saw Kiyoko’s home made cake in the fridge compared to his smaller, store bought one.

“From your parents..?”  
“Nah, Kiyoko. House help. It’s just something she’s done for ages.”

Nagisa didn’t ask anymore questions and Karma didn’t elaborate. They both had crappy home lives (though Karma would take hers over Nagisa’s any day of the week - at least she had her freedom and privacy); there was a mutual understanding between them without needing to explain every little detail and pour out all their feelings and secrets. It wasn’t that they didn’t care about each others situations, but there was only so much they could do about them, so dwelling on the negatives wouldn’t do anyone any good. Plus, you only get a set amount of time to be free of the hell you live in, so you might as well make the most of it.

Even though they spent the most of the day at her house, Karma could honestly say it wasn’t hell for once. Usually, Kiyoko was overbearing or she was studying or constantly faced with the fact that her parents never really wanted to come home anymore, and simply treated her as an obligation rather than a daughter. The place was cold and kind of lifeless, minus the Indian artefacts and smell of incense that stuck to the house like a second skin.

But Nagisa was impressed with the size of the house, found the weird things her parents kept sending home interesting (though the incense made him sneeze and sniffle for half the day) and was amazed at her collection of games and movies. Nagisa bought life into the place. It sounded dramatic and super stereotypical of a teenage girl, but it was true. There was her, the hell raiser, the lazy gamer and studier, and Kiyoko, the house help, the fake mother and supervisor. There were no real relationships or companionship in the house anymore. She’d underestimated the importance of having a home - of a place where people could come together willingly and accept each other as family.

It was nice, having a day where she could pretend that she still had that.

—

They parted ways, Karma waving at Nagisa until he turned the corner at the end of the street. The smile didn’t leave her face until well into the night. She ignored Kiyoko’s cake, not entirely out of spite, but mostly because the one Nagisa bought tasted better (she’d had enough of Kiyoko’s cakes to know that without trying the other cake). It’d been a day like any other, but it was definitely the best birthday she’d had in years. She’d sent Nagisa a message, just a simple thank you, but she hoped he understood the weight of that word.

Things were looking up. Of course, she was still transferring, and god knows what would happen after that, but things were good. A couple of weeks ago everything was working in her favour; even though things had changed, it felt like she was still reaping the benefits.

She could get around the class change. Not now, but soon. Behaviour was a problem of hers, and none of the teachers particularly wanted her in their class, so if she was irritating enough, she could get dragged down again at the start of next year. She could always drop her grades, but that would just cause more issues with Kiyoko.

It was almost midnight when something clicked.

This whole situation was just another fight. Fighting was something she was good at. She was both muscle and mind. If she were intuitive and flexible, she could use both to advantage. Karma was sure that her physical and mental skills were at the top of the school - that meant practically everyone else was below her. She could use that to her advantage too. When it came to the staff members, she was sure she could outwit some, if not all, of them as well.

_It’s all a matter of changing how you think._

She decided she wouldn’t fully give up. Transferring wasn’t something she wanted, so she wasn’t going to sit around and let it happen. This wasn’t the path for her, so she wasn’t going to follow it.

The next day, she started taking photos. The first featured her, posing with a second year middle schooler from a school in the next prefecture over. The second was from the same region, this time two students, bruised in tones of blue and black, third year middle schoolers. By the end of the holidays, the redhead had travelled the outer regions of Tokyo, Gunma, Ibaraki,and Chiba, to collect a total of 20 photos and 32 victims.

It wasn’t particularly easy. There was travel time and cost, and trying to keep a low profile while scouting out victims (thank you, social media) and getting to know them. But transferring wasn’t something she wanted. She was sick of people trying to force her into a box, a set of rules set so tight that there was no room for _her_. (Which she found ironic, since most people, not knowing she was female (or just forgetting since she was nowhere near feminine looking and her behaviour was just as far away) were trying to force her into the box meant for the opposite gender, but she wasn’t going to tell them that.) She’d never been a quitter before now either, so giving up, as much as it was the easier option, was something that just didn’t sit well with her.

Getting to stay in D Class was going to be a challenge, but that was her goal and something she’d do her best to obtain. Her actual best, not the halfhearted version she used in class, the one she tried to convince her teachers was her true best, having some of them believe her without question and others sigh, knowing she was capable of so much more. This wasn’t the time to step away. If she couldn’t win this small of a battle, or even try to, she wouldn’t get anywhere. Any limits that were made in the past don’t apply - after all, they were made in response to incidents already past, and were already outdated. All she had to do was make new boundaries and walk on the path she decided for herself.

_Just gotta use your strength to your advantage._

—

When the next term rolled around, Karma was still in D Class, much to some people’s delight and other’s horror. In a school like Kunugigaoka where academics were everything (with reputation a close second, of course, as E Class served as a prime example of a tarnished reputation), everyone was constantly striving for better grades, better social circles, better everything. Class shuffles were a relatively common occurrence because of that. Not everyone could hack the academic battle, so they’d drop down, leaving a space at a higher level that numerous students were clamouring to snatch just to get that little bit further ahead.

It was no different in her class. Terasaka had dropped down to D Class (Karma wasn’t even sure how he’d _gotten_ into C Class - she was positive it was bribery or sheer luck; even though academics was the main reason for moving class, behaviour also contributed to it, and Terasaka was a pain in the butt even when he was behaving) while Karma’s move up was ‘postponed’.

“There were a lot of students who were being placed up, or down, into C Class this term. Akabane-san’s behaviour simply doesn’t match what we expect in C Class. A good fit wasn’t possible, so the spot was given to a student who could better match the expectations of my class. My apologies.”

Karma saw a stack of photos half hidden under the paper work on his desk, glad to know they'd been received. It'd taken her a while to figure out what to do with the photos and how to send them without any traces leading back to her. (She'd wondered if it was worth sending them, but all they had was proof that she was 'on friendly terms' (though some smiles looked... well, painful) with people who were injured - no different to how she behaved at school, really. Everyone knew the truth, but without proof what could they do? There was no evidence of her harming anyone, so she'd decided to take the risk, and if by the way the teacher kept nervously glancing at her, it was one that had paid off well) Kiyoko was furiously trying to argue that her behaviour was perfect and that he didn't have proof about it otherwise.

"We've had some... complaints, about Akabane-kun's behaviour. Not just from within the school, but within the wider community as well." Karma tried to smother a grin, thinking about the amount of time she'd spent commuting. Kiyoko was probably thinking about maybe Kunugigaoka City and maybe a neighbouring town or two, not even imagining that the complaints were coming from other prefectures. "Akabane-kun would be wise to use this opportunity as a chance of self reflection and reformation."

Karma could see the relief on the teacher’s face and could practically _feel_ how tense Kiyoko became. Karma was incredibly smug. Kiyoko was fuming. It didn’t even matter that the woman lectured her all the way home, the meeting with the C Class homeroom teacher making her irritated and frustrated, her usually soft words becoming clipped and curt. Kiyoko probably had her best interests in mind, but Kiyoko wasn’t family and Karma wasn’t stupid. She could choose for herself what was in her best interests. Perhaps Kiyoko was right and she was wrong, but there was no way of knowing that for sure. She could only cross that bridge when she came to it.

Kiyoko called her parents to inform them of the disappointing news. Her mother spoke to her, softly, as though this was a bad time and she was being interrupted and was disturbing others (and judging by how forceful Kiyoko was being, that was likely the case - though the fact that it was midnight where her parents were probably didn’t help). Her mother wasn’t particularly disappointed, one way or the other. “As long as you’re trying your best, dear.”

She wasn’t, but if she was achieving damn good scores with little effort, why bother? The redhead knew she was beyond good, beyond excellent even, but she didn’t feel the need to prove herself to a bunch of brats and washed out teachers. She told her mother she’d work hard and continue to do her best.

Father was a different story. “D Class? Shouldn’t you be in A Class?” She was frustrated by the time he hung up. It was partly his fault that she didn’t try harder; after all, if great was ‘okay’, excellent would never be more than ‘good’ so why bother? If he didn’t support her at her worst or when she was seriously putting effort in, she wasn’t going to keep it up - there was no point trying to achieve the impossible and please someone who couldn’t be pleased. She was a _kid_ and she’d damn well enjoy that time while it lasted, thank you very much. The daily grind wasn’t going to be fun, so why give that up now?

All Karma could do was what was best for her. That was how she’d always done things, so there was no reason to change that now.

—

The term went by quietly. They studied for midterms and her grades stayed the same, except for English which went up slightly. The redhead attributed this to looking for news about the Sonic Ninja movie and replaying the game in its native language rather than her teacher’s skills. The winter chill started to leave the air, any snow remaining melted. The students started to brighten - for the 3rd years, it was time to move on, the 2nd years would start their final year soon (the poor souls moving to E Class would soon start their trail period on the mountain top as preparation for a hellish final year) and the 1st years could move up, becoming leaders to the new kids who would soon take their place.

Spring came with weak sunshine, soft winds and a flurry of cherry blossoms. Karma spent time picking them out of her bag, off her uniform and her desk before throwing them at Nagisa, watching the boy get frustrated as he tried to pull them out of his hair. Sometimes she forgot he could be so quiet and _not there, not Nagisa_ , especially at times like these when they were just _kids_.

Finals came and her grades dropped a bit (except English, and surprisingly, Ethics, which she’d become interested in after an uncharacteristically smart comment from Sugino). There wasn’t a lot of reconciliation possible with Kiyoko anymore, so she stopped putting in the effort. Kiyoko wasn’t impressed, but the woman was beyond arguing. They’d lost respect with each other and were out of touch; Karma’s grades weren’t bad either, so complaining when she was above average was a slap in the face to everyone the redhead’s grades were better than and something the bosses didn’t have time to waste on. Plus, everyone knew that Karma knew all the content, could ace things every time, so if she wasn’t going to do it when she _could_ , there was no chance of making her if she didn’t want to.

Karma enjoyed keeping the bar low. Keeping the bar lower made things easy; if you needed to, you could use that to your advantage later, as people wouldn’t know your true abilities. Why study and cram for hours on end when you could play video games until all hours, still pass with decent grades and take a nap in the exam? She had things just as she liked them, and it worked well enough, so why fix something that wasn’t broken?

The graduation ceremony was in the last few days of term. A lot of singing and crying and speeches made by people she didn’t care about. The closing ceremony was next, a day later, a pointless waste of time in most of the student’s opinion but “it’s always been done this way”, so there was no hope in changing it. It was much the same, with accolades given to the various clubs that had worked hard and achieved greatness throughout the year. They closed with the school song before heading back to a long homeroom session (“behave over the holidays”, “make sure you complete this work”, “even though it’s a break period, you’re still representing our school”, “keep us up to date of your activities”, nag nag _nag_ ). Sensei let them go as soon as he was allowed to, not wanting to keep them back ( _like he could of_ ) and needing to get back to his own mountain of work.

There was a two week break before the new school year started. Karma and Nagisa had plans to meet up a few times. Even with Sugino and the others. (Karma believed she could be less of a brat this time around, though that waited to be proven.) A new movie by her favourite director was coming out tomorrow and most of the paperwork they’d been given could be completed by the weekend, leaving her free for most of the break.

_Life is good._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a bit of a block with this chapter. It took quite a while to write too. Usually I have the chapter written and edited twice within a week. This one took four weeks… I still think it’s not that great, but I suppose that’s why I’m not a professional lol
> 
> They’ve now finished their first year as JHS students! So we’re now half way through the middle school arc (yes, middle school is three years but third year gets its own thing due to all the shit that goes down lmao). The next three chapters will take place in their second year. More of the other students will start to make an appearance from now on~ 
> 
> Also, timeline wise, this is 2014. I don’t believe we get an exact year and Matsui uses modern stuff - that means third year starts in April of 2016. Honestly Nagisa is so easy to write messages from but Karma… (How do trendy/asshat Tokyo teens type??!? Gd inaka life)  
> There will also be more dialogue from now on (how have I managed not to write more conversations lmao)
> 
> There may or may not be another chapter this month >.


	7. Second Year

The second year started the same as the first had. Boring speeches, boring people, boring boring boring. The only difference was that E Class was filled with fresh faces, exhausted from their first hike up and down the mountain, shame and ridicule already being drilled into them by the sniggering of other students. The classesin her grade hadn’t shuffled much after last term - people understood the game and how to play. Even if they couldn’t play it well, they could play it enough to stay afloat and not lose (or have parents desperate enough to pay for them).

Isogai had managed to work himself up to B Class, joining his friend Maehara. Everyone was stupidly happy for the guy; apparently he worked a part-time job to help his family out, despite it being against school rules, so the fact he’d managed to climb the ladder, coupled with his genuine nice guy personality, made everyone ecstatic for the guy. A girl named Hazama had joined Karma, Sugino and Nagisa in D Class, for which she was kinda happy. She wasn’t a girly girl who wanted to chat and gossip, but it was nice at least _having_ another girl in the class. Hazama was moody and weird looking, kinda like a vampire from a stage play, but she’d take what she’d get. Most of the girls had moved into the middle classes (the blonde girl who looked like a tame Shibuya girl could be heard from C Class next door, just as obnoxiously loud as last year), leaving D Class with only four girls. The others were some no name girl (who Karma would bet money on that she would be transferring at the end of term) and a girl called Hayami, a textbook tsundere.

They had a new homeroom teacher this year. He was younger than the last. Lazy looking and not attractive and his personality seemed a bit skewed. He was pretty boring, plain, like there was nothing special or interesting about him. However, the one area he stood out in was wanting them to be the best they could be. Most teachers were like that, but he was pretty blatant about the fact that if they were good, it made him look better, so he'd push them as much as humanly possible. Most at least tried to pretend they wanted the best for their students, but their teacher was very upfront about looking out for number one - himself. Perhaps not admirable, but Karma admired his honesty. _This should be an interesting classroom…_

—

She continued fighting in her second year; it was second nature to her after all. Her behaviour had become public knowledge and most people avoided her. She didn’t care. Nagisa was still her friend and she didn’t really need any more than one. Plus, some people used her attitude to their advantage and ended up becoming her acquaintance.

“No but really, who else can clear a room this fast?”  
“Sugino, that’s rude!”  
“You wouldn’t be saying that if we hadn’t got a table! This place is packed! Without the threat of Karma beating them up looming over them, we’d be standing for sure! Thanks man!” Sugino grinned, giving her a hearty slap on the shoulder. She shrugged.  
“Well, he’s not wrong.” Nagisa and Maehara laughed in response while Isogai sighed.

It was Golden Week. Their school was holding some kind of fair in collaboration with various community groups. Karma hadn’t wanted to go (“Do you realise how many new games have come out recently?”) but Nagisa had kept asking until she gave in. As expected, she was bored, so she was looking for the chance to leave. By now, Nagisa had gotten used to it, as had everyone else. The first time she ditched them they’d all freaked out, wondering if she’d gotten horribly lost or something. Now it was ‘typical Karma’ behaviour, whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.

They sat at the table she’d acquired (“Please don’t say that, it makes you sound like a mob boss.” Maehara snorted, adding, “Are you saying he isn’t one?”, getting another round of laughter from the group) and ate a variety of food, including fried cheese covered in mayonnaise, karaage, rolled okonomiyaki and kakigoori. When she was done, she left, not wanting to hang around for small talk. Okajima had joined the group not long after they sat down, meaning the topic of girls was more than likely going to be the main topic.

She didn't mind being 'one of the boys' (though if the boys found out she wasn't actually a boy, she doubted she'd be allowed to join their discussions...), and she didn't mind listening to their conversations about girls. They were amusing, even interesting on occasion (she made mental notes too; who knew when they’d come in handy?). But Okajima was another matter entirely. Listening to anyone else's talks, everybody else's, really, was fine, normal. Okajima was crazy and she really didn't care to know his in-depth thoughts about the 'fairer sex'. The sooner she left, the better.

—

The first term went by quickly. She tutored Nagisa when she could fit into the boy’s schedule (something his mother made close to impossible) and studied English by watching movies and playing video games. As a result, her grades were the top of the class, much to everyone’s astonishment. “Not sure what the fuss is about. I have a brain, y’know? I’m not just an idiotic monkey like Terasaka.”

Sensei had called her to the staff room before she could respond to the idiot’s indignant yelling. Most the class had laughed, thinking she was going to get in trouble for her attitude _again_. “Seriously, will the dude never learn?”  
“He gets in trouble everyday! Isn’t that annoying?”  
“Yeah, isn’t he tired of having such a bad attitude?”  
“You gotta admit, he’s got balls though.”

Much to everyone’s surprise, she ended up becoming the teacher’s pet. “You work hard, Akabane. It’s paying off. You get on people’s nerves, but you do what you think is right. That’s admirable. Keep it up.” She’d never admit it to anyone, but that was the happiest she’d been in a long time.

They were simple words, but they meant a lot. Pretty much everyone everywhere wanted to be acknowledged and praised - she was no different, though she didn’t go out of her way to get it, unlike a lot of people. If people didn't see her effort and talent, that was their problem; she wasn't going to grovel and beg for attention to get her fix. These were the words she’d wanted to hear from Kiyoko, from her parents, from _anyone,_ for _years_ , but had never heard anything even close to them. She took them to heart, probably a bit too close.

Sensei only cared what was in her head and what she put on paper. The uniform didn’t matter to him. He knew full well that she shouldn’t be in the gym with the guys, but if it wasn’t hurting anyone, what did it matter? Her abilities in the classroom more than made up for her poor attitude, her disrespect for the most of the faculty and the bruises she left on the student population, at least in his eyes.

He knew she could go far. Perhaps she wasn’t going to in middle school, because she honestly couldn’t care less, but middle school wasn’t the end of the road. High school could be different. University maybe. And who knows, when she was some big shot rolling in money, maybe she’d think of her former sensei and give him some credit for turning a delinquent into a star.

Maybe he could do that now, even. Turn coal into diamonds, make her nice and clean and shiny. Turn everyone’s perceptions of her around, make her look amazing. All because of his hard work.

Karma wasn't stupid. She knew his game. He'd made it clear from day one. But he was also nicer than he needed to be to reap the benefits of helping her out. He didn't buy any of the other students drinks, didn't take an interest in their personal lives or help cover up their digressions and bail them out of trouble, time and time again. (It’d gotten to the point where he blocked out an hour a day of his schedule, purely to deal with her shit - sometimes it wasn’t necessary to ask others for forgiveness on her part, so they had ‘counselling’ sessions, which mostly consisted of lazing about or bitching about the school.)

None of that was necessary for her to get good grades and it certainly wasn't going to change her attitude and behaviour, so there was no way he was going to get anything in return. And who's to say she'd remember him down the track, or he'd even get credit for her future path? It was a lot of extra effort for a lot of unknowns and possibly no rewards. She couldn't help but being happy about it. After all, it was nice having a parental figure who actually agreed with her and let her live her life the way she wanted to.

—

Summer arrived, hot and muggy and awful as usual. The more elite members of the school had been bragging about their paid-by-the-school vacation for weeks. 3-A was preparing to go on a trip to Okinawa, a reward for dominating the top spots in the exams.

“We’ll never get to do that.”  
“Yeah, I could study for a decade and still not get those type of grades!”  
“More like a century!”  
“Don’t forget, we have Karma!”  
“He only counts if he actually gives a shit.”  
“And the chances of that are…”

The class dissolved into giggles, throwing looks her way, thinking she couldn’t hear. Karma didn’t react, pretending to sleep. They were right. She could ace the exams and she could probably help tutor the rest of the class to get better grades (though she doubted it would be enough to beat the A class geeks, this _was_ D Class after all). But that wasn’t her job, and what did she care about going to Okinawa? She had the money, she could go whenever she wanted. If the rest of the class wanted something, they needed to get it for themselves, not wait for someone to hand it to them.

She was glad when the holidays rolled around. Things had started to get tense in the small amount of time after the exams. Rumours about who would be dropping down to E Class were running rampant, with the second years desperately trying to find reasons why they wouldn’t be dropped and the third years giving advice on how the system worked (despite not really having any clear ideas other than bad grades and behaviour). Karma could guess a few, judging by academics and behaviour, as could everyone else. Terasaka, for example, was more than likely going to be the first to be confirmed. His two friends, Muramatsu and Yoshida were more than likely going with him. The three of them weren’t incredibly bright and weren’t exactly model students either.

Apparently the class was going to be half girls, something that hadn’t happened in a while, with Hayami from her class going down, from what she’d heard at least. It wasn’t surprising - the girl didn’t talk to others and couldn’t communicate properly, so even though she wasn’t badly behaved or stupid, she didn’t embody the societal aspect of the school (and of course, if only one or two students were dropped, E Class wouldn’t look like a threat; it was best to grab as many students as possible, even if they had barely done anything wrong, to ensure that fear was still plaguing the student body).

People were convinced Karma was going, but at the moment, she knew that wasn’t the case. Sensei had her back. It was hard enough to get a teacher for E Class as it was, nobody wanted to put her in the class and have the teacher walk out mid way through the year. Either a main campus teacher would be exiled or the exiled would return to their former classes - it’d be a disaster, no matter which way you looked at it. It was easier to keep her on the main campus where she could be watched and the staff could make an attempt at controlling her. She did her own thing and mostly kept out of trouble unless provoked, so it was more of a matter of keeping other students in line, which for third years, focussing on high school entrance exams and excelling in extra curricular activities, was much easier to achieve than the younger year levels.

Karma was more concerned about ‘the forgotten students’. They didn’t stand out due to being bad, or for being good, they were just there, background characters to the villains of potential E Class rejects and the intellectual heroes of A Class. Students who didn’t excel in any field were a target. If you couldn’t be excellent at everything, you needed to be good at everything. If you couldn’t do that, you needed to be excellent at something, anything; if you couldn’t do that, what made you worth being at Kunugigaoka? There were plenty of students who were average in Japan - you got into this prestigious school, showing you had promise, but had failed to make anything of yourself. It was like painting a target on yourself and daring the staff to hit you.

Popular though she may be, Kanzaki was definitely being dragged down. A girl full of promise had collapsed into not much of anything except a pretty face. Hara, a sweet girl, was also going. She had a heart of gold but was average at everything. Karma also had bets on a kid named Mimura. She didn’t tell anyone about who she thought was going to be sent to E Class, because people would shoot her down only to realise later she was right, and she knew it would only hurt people. Karma was a pain and rude and kind of awful at times, but there was a limit, and the line was drawn there.

After all, telling your best friend they were going to be subjected to a year of misery and taunting was a pretty messed up thing to do.

It stung, especially after all the tutoring they’d done, but she knew Nagisa was going to E Class. He was forgotten, any easy target to make the numbers for E Class go up. He wouldn’t fight it, and chances are his mother would try to bribe the school out of the choice, making it even more likely they’d go for it. (Asshats or not, who didn’t like extra and easy money to line their pockets with?) Nagisa knew and spoke to a lot of people, but he wasn’t friends with anyone influential. He wasn’t in any clubs and didn’t do any extra curricular activities outside of school, didn’t volunteer or get involved with the community. His grades were decent, but without Karma, they’d be a lot worse. Next year when exam results were posted, everyone would see it and either confirm E Class as a hell that made you stupid or assume Nagisa had been getting good grades due to being a cheat.

No matter which way you spun it, the school won. Fighting with Kiyoko, fighting punks, fighting the system, it all seemed pointless now. No matter her efforts, her and Nagisa would be separated. She wondered what her efforts to stay in D Class had been for, and whether they’d been worth anything.

—

“Oi! Yeah, you! With the red hair!” Karma stopped. After all, there certainly wasn’t many people that could be referring to, even though it was Shibuya. A girl came running up to her. It took her a moment, but she recognised the wannabe gyaru from class C.

“Yeah?” For a brief second the girl stopped and eyed her up. Karma didn’t blink - usually her stare made people back off. But the other girl didn’t give, trying not to blink either. The other girl grinned after she lost the stare down - Karma had never seen someone so happy to lose before. “Yeah! You’re the one!” A hand encircled her wrist and they were off.

It was kind of strange hanging out with someone like this. She hadn’t had any friends other than Nagisa (and his friends) to hang out with in years, so when this girl started dragging her she was shocked to say the least. Nagisa was fairly easy to read (most of the time, though there were still times when she got chills and ended up startled). But Nakamura was a loose cannon.

“Ne, let’s go see Hachiko!”  
"Why?”  
“Because we’re in Shibuya, duh!”  
“Or we could not.”  
“Boo! We’re going!”

So they did. Joining the crowd of tourists, domestic and international, to take their photo with a statue, they made small talk until they were bored. Pushing to the front, they took their photos (Nakamura insisted on using a bunch of different filters, giving them everything from plain photos, photos with dog ears, celebrity glasses and something that looked like it came from a surrealism exhibition). They left to check out 109, another thing Karma had no desire to do but Nakamura dragged her along regardless.

“It’s just clothes! Get over yourself! Boys are so dumb sometimes!”

While she wasn’t purposefully keeping her gender a secret, she didn’t particularly want it revealed. At this point, if people found out, her image would be crumbled and she’d need to start from page one. Nobody would take an angry girl seriously. _Nobody would take a girl seriously._ She’d be told to wear the girl’s uniform, to play nice with girls and be encouraged to join the home economics class. Girls would want to know which boy she liked and boys would tease her when she got nothing on White Day. Her intelligence would be second place to guys, so would her physical abilities (if anything, she’d be treated as a freak for being so fit, and her violent nature would make people question whether she was truly a girl or not). She’d be in Nagisa’s position, constantly doubted if her appearance was true, her identity always questioned and mocked, forced to play along with jokes and insults.

She didn’t want a life like that.

When Nakamura had suggested the shopping mecca, the redhead’s guard had gone up faster than she could blink. She’d relaxed when she realised Nakamura had no clue about her truth and was just shopping because 109 was there, dragging the redhead around for the sake of it, wasn’t going to blackmail Karma or bully her into dresses for her own amusement. Still, she was slightly nervous as they scoured the tower for bargains, Nakamura turning the place into her own fashion shoot.

“I’m going to put all these on my instagram! Hey, you have one of those, right? Let’s follow each other!”  
“Are you even going to buy anything?”  
A shrug and a laugh. “Who knows?”

They ended up buying matching sunglasses and oversized shirts (“they’re unisex so you can’t complain about these!”), black with ‘better than you’ written in bold white print. The clerks clearly thought they were dating, but neither of them corrected them. Honestly gender meant nothing to her - she found just as many guys attractive as she did girls, and Nakamura seemed to feel the same. Karma didn’t clarify that though, as it honestly didn’t matter to her one way or the other. (Interestingly, Kiyoko always made jokes about her liking a boy but when she’d talked about a cute girl once the woman had become angry, telling her she was too young for ridiculous thoughts like that, that she had no clue about romance, that it was a random thought and she’d understand that soon enough. It was something Karma didn’t think she’d forget any time soon.)

Heading back from 109, they stopped by Hachiko again. This time the statue was joined by a cat, lazing at it’s feet. Nobody was quite sure about how it got there, but most were happy to rejoin the messy queue for photos again. She wasn’t sure how it happened really, but she ended up being dragged around the city for coffee and more shopping, then down Cat Street for more photos for their instagrams. Their day ended in Harajuku, with crepes and kakigoori, until the crowds started to thin out, night fell and the air became cold. A police officer yelled at them to go home, threatening to call their parents for being out so late. They ran, laughing at his futile attempt to catch them. Heading back on the train together, they kept laughing, exchanging numbers and line details, promising to catch up again.

Kiyoko was pissed when she got home well after curfew, but what could she do about it? Her parents insisted she kept her mobile on her at all times in case of an emergency, so that couldn’t be taken away. She’d leant most of her gaming consoles out and confiscating Nagisa’s Sonic Ninja books would be super rude.

Kiyoko could do nothing but rant. Karma didn’t care though. It was nice to have another friend. Granted, she was still incredibly confused. Nakamura hadn’t bothered to explain how she was ‘the one’ or what type of criteria ‘the one’ had to have, so she kinda thought the blonde was just bored and making shit up in order to have fun. Nakamura had certainly delivered.

Adding Nakamura on instagram (@rioriorioooo16) she saw her latest post. Wearing their stupidly oversized glasses, they posed on a set of stairs in Harajuku, holding crepes that neither of them ended up liking that much. They’d enjoyed looking at the numerous displays and trying to get into position quickly before their food went gross, so it’d still been a great time that she’d repeat again any day.

_Amazing day in the city with @akakarma1 <3<3 #harajuku #tokyo #japan #crepes #nofilter #noneneeded #we’rehotaf #bestsummerever #besties #bae_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In all honesty I don’t know if it was mentioned what classes the kids were in pre-E Class - so if you know, please tell! I don’t think class shuffles are really a thing, but neither is forcing kids up a mountain daily and treating them like slaves and giving them the pressure of saving the world, so w/e.
> 
> Ah, LINE is an instant messaging app that everyone uses here (but... people know that right?). I buy way too many stickers for it lol Oh right, it’s seen in one of the final episodes, where everyone is heading to the mountain to Sensei. Hazama was meant to appear this chapter but…. haha… lmao can you tell I ran out of ideas haha
> 
> This chapter was also a bitch to write, I’m so rusty on dialogueeeeee T.T Filler? I really want to flesh out Karma’s relationships with people since we aren’t told a lot about how people met except for being in the same school which is super vague (and honestly, if there’s around 150 students per grade, chances are even if you’ve seen someone you don’t know them enough to be friends unless you’ve put in the effort or in the same club which haha Karma, so that explains nothing lmao).
> 
> The next two chapters focus on the rift between Nagisa and Karma and Karma getting suspended. And the Asano duo make an appearance :D Please let me know what you think!


	8. Shiota Nagisa

The second term started out quietly, everyone still on their holiday high. The first three weeks went by without a hitch (even Karma had been quiet, only having beaten up two students, so the teachers were calling it a win all around). When the fourth week started, gossip ripped through the halls and was furiously messaged to friends in other classes.

The first student to be thrown down to E Class had been decided.

People weren’t sure how to react; surprisingly, even the teachers seemed upset at the loss. They’d had almost two years to prepare. From the first week it was clear that some would be judged weaker, stupider, more worthless than their peers. There would be a group singled out to be the punching bag of the school. For some of them, it’d been obvious who was a target from their first term due to behaviour or lack of smarts. Others were obviously teacher’s pets and would stay that way, safe without effort.

But most of the students lived not knowing what would happen, only being able to furiously try and fight the unfairness of the E Class system. They’d all known it would happen, but it was different when it happened to the second years. It was different watching it to the year above you, watching people you don’t really know or care about fall from grace into public embarrassment, sentenced to live with that until graduation. When it happened to someone you’d spent close to two years with, it was bizarre, almost like a strange hallucination, something that couldn’t possibly be real.

Especially when it was Isogai Yuuma.

He was smart, good looking, an all around genuine nice guy. People had laughed when the news was announced. “You know April is months away, right?” Everyone had thought it was some awful prank, gossip or nasty whispers made by someone without really thinking. Because really, _Isogai_ is E Class? What a joke!

But when the brunette walked into class, smile wavering and looking exhausted, everyone knew it was true.

Maehara protected him for the most part, but he couldn’t stop the jeers and insults that started once the shock started to wear off. The fact the womaniser sided with E Class scum made him a target too, and he couldn’t defend the both of them, not all the time. And damn, Karma did _not_ want to get involved, but watching those two morons try and smile off the insults and ‘accidental’ trips by senior students and people who were friends not five minutes ago made her blood _boil_.

But she stayed back. This wasn’t her fight. She’d helped E Class in the past because it gave her endless people to beat up. _Though if Isogai is being dragged down…_ The redhead didn’t want to think about her chances of staying on the main campus. Sure, Sensei said he had her back, but he wasn’t a senior staff member, wasn’t respected and didn’t respect others, and she was the most hated student. He could only do so much for her. She was combative by nature, but she knew when to pick her battles. People may say she was being a coward for backing down, but Karma was always out looking for the interests of number one - herself.

Nobody could stop the panic that happened after the announcement. Those who thought they were safe started worrying like being in E Class was the worst thing that could possibly happen to them (though at their age, it pretty much was) - three students were sent home after having crippling anxiety attacks in the first week alone.

It wasn’t really shocking when Maehara was dragged down with Isogai (he tried to make jokes about how he’d still come and see the ladies, but they couldn’t have been more disinterested in him if they’d been paid). _At least the bullying stopped a little._ With both boys a target, people had become disinterested. Maehara was no longer Isogai’s knight in shining armour - he was trash as well. The interest had diminished, especially when five new members of the class had been announced, giving the school’s population fresh meat to destroy. Karma didn’t know any of them well (a glasses girl who could barely string a sentence together without looking like she was going to pass out, Masayoshi, a plump girl called Hara, a boy who vaguely reminded her of a mushroom and a guy (maybe? His long hair threw her off a little) called Sugaya) so she couldn’t have cared less. Okajima was sunk down two days later. The girls in particular enjoyed bullying him. He took it in stride - “Attention is attention! Am I right or am I right!?”.

Nobody answered. Trash doesn’t talk, right?

Karma stayed quiet for a while. A few people tried to provoke her into fights, but she shut them down quickly enough. Mostly, people were worried for themselves. Less people skipped class, less people forgot homework, spoke out of line. People were conforming. Karma found it boring and stifling. But they were almost half way through the year.

She was safe. Nagisa was safe.

_Just a few more weeks._

—

Someone had once told her that she was intimidating because of her brains and brawn. “You can do what you want. Nobody can touch you. It must be freeing.”

She’d gloated, of course, because it wasn’t intimidating to say “It’s actually kinda lonely.” But what right did she have to complain about being lonely when she was the one who put herself in that position?

But Nagisa didn’t seem intimidated by her. A little concerned about her attitude, but not intimidated. His friends were, even though they tried not to show it. The fact that Nagisa could watch her break bones and laugh while she did it without flinching put her on edge.

She didn’t think they could be friends for long, but she’d been pleasantly surprised. _Almost a year._ They stood on different stages, him on one with everyone else, her a couple of levels above, shining in studying and fighting alike. Yet the wolf and the harmless little mouse were still friends.

They’d been confronted once, when they were walking home. Some punk wanted revenge on her for beating up his friend.

“Eh? Dunno what you’re talking about. He was the one who messed with me~” She didn’t bother to hear the response. She threw her bag up, using the distraction to rush in. Sitting on the guy’s chest, she landed hit after hit. “Huh? Can’t hear you! Say it again!”

When she’d finished, Nagisa was still there, holding her bag. She reached out with bloody hands. “Thanks.”

Nagisa didn’t flinch. “No problem.” He gave her back the bag with a smile, not worrying when their hands brushed and his skin was stained with red.

Karma shivered.

—

*Rioriorioooo16 ~ Did u hear?

Terasaka + his goons r heading 4 E!! (Read: 9:50pm)

*Akakarma1 ~ Not surprised

When not if www (Read: 9:52pm)

Nakamura had messaged her early the next morning (she was in the tennis club and they had obnoxiously early practice sessions, something the blonde always whined about. “You should just quit.” “It’s kinda fun though. It’s just Sensei’s such a bitch!”). Karma knew that for all the complaints she had about the club, she couldn’t imagine not being in it.

*Rioriorioooo16 ~ Wanna hang out afta school? (Read: 6:20am)

*Akakarma1 ~ Shibuya? (Read: 6:40am)

A picture of a thumb was her response. The day went by as usual, Nakamura being obnoxiously loud from the class next door and Karma skipping the last two sessions of the day (PE and math, both of which she excelled at). Heading to Shibuya, late after waking up from a nap on the roof, she wasn’t surprised to not find Nakamura. They always met at Hachiko. If the other wasn’t there, the meeting was off - Karma gave usually gave the blond ten minutes to be late, but she wasn’t going to hang around after that.

Karma wasn’t bothered and headed back home. She’d apologise tomorrow. Nakamura knew her well enough by now not to take things personally. She was lazy, my pace to the extreme. The blonde often thought it was hilarious, both of them smart enough to do whatever but neither of them cared. Karma didn’t think it was particularly funny, but there was nothing wrong with Nakamura’s words.

It wasn’t until the next day that Karma realised something was wrong.

She didn’t see Nakamura in the morning. It wasn’t uncommon, it wasn’t like they walked together, but not _hearing_ her? It was one thing for her phone not to be bombarded with messages (the redhead often turned her notifications off because of the blonde’s constant spamming) but for the class next door to be silent? That was wrong.

A few people in her class kept staring, Nagisa raising an eyebrow as if to ask if she knew what was going on. Honestly, some thought that she and Nakamura were dating, rather than just close friends (though neither of the duo cared to correct them). Karma just shook her head softly. Most would take it as ‘not your business’ or ‘don’t worry’ and move on, but Nagisa continued to show concern. It pissed Karma off.

Nakamura had nothing to do with Nagisa. Nakamura was _her_ friend. Sure, Nakamura had plenty of other friends and that was fine, but Karma had never introduced the two to each other, opting to keep her friendship circles separate. It wasn’t Nagisa’s business to butt in. It definitely wasn’t his business to look so concerned and sad, like it was _his_ friend who was the centre of attention.

(She hated to be jealous. She also hated not knowing and people _expecting_ her to know. Why hadn’t Nakamura messaged her? Was yesterday important and she just didn’t realise it and made a mess of their relationship by not showing up? The redhead tapped her pen against the desk, _tap tap tap taptaptap tap tap tap taptaptap_ , moody, mostly at herself, partly at Nakamura and Nagisa, even though they’d done nothing wrong.)

Lunchtime. Karma finally got a message.

*Rioriorioooo16 ~ Shibuya? (Read: 12:42pm)

*Akakarma1 ~ After school? (Read: 12:45pm)

*Rioriorioooo16 ~ Now (Read: 12:46pm)

Her fingers paused above the keyboard. She wasn’t adverse to skipping, but Nakamura, as much as she was a wild child, barely ditched. Honestly, at this point Karma couldn’t really get in more troubled with the school, so there was no harm in her going.

*Akakarma1 ~ K

                       Where are you? (Read: 12:48pm)

A short delay. Karma had started heading downstairs to get her stuff. Second floors for the second years. A mid way point. Certainly fitting for how a lot of them felt, dangling between the good grace of the main campus and the shame of E Class.

*Rioriorioooo16 ~ Hachiko (Read: 12:50pm)

Karma broke into a run. She grabbed her things and kept going. Nobody was going to stop her, even if they could catch her. All she could think about was Nakamura. Everything was fine yesterday, and today the world had gone to hell. A mantra ran through her head the entire way there, her heart beating fast from the intense running, her legs jigging even as she sat on the train, wondering why there were so many god damn stops between Kunugigaoka and Shibuya. _Please no, please not Rio._

Sprinting out of the station, she almost tripped over the ticket barrier, her card not scanning as fast as she was travelling. An attendant yelled at her but she was already gone, across the courtyard, bumping into _so many people_. She was pissed. _Don’t they have anything better to do? It’s the middle of the day! Why aren’t they at work?!_

Trying to slip through the crowds, she could see their meeting place. But Nakamura wasn’t there. The blonde _always_ stood by Hachi. A little to the left or right, but visible. It was necessary - there were swarms of people meeting around the damned dog, so if you weren’t right by it, you’d get lost in the sea of salary man and tourists. Karma started worrying, biting her thumbnail in aggravation - she was a couple of meters away, but Rio’s bleached locks usually stood out from a distance. Trying to calm down, she took a breath and looked around ( _you’re being stupid, she isn’t herself, of course she isn’t going to do what she normally does. She told you she’s here, just look properly_ ). She walked back to the station exit ( _maybe she meant the Hachiko exit?_ ), then walked around to Hachiko the long way, the mass of people around the statue making squishing through them an undesirable option. Heading around the back of the swarm, she made her way to the trees. A quick scan of the area helped her find her friend (Karma would even go out on a limb and say her _best_ friend, purely because there was nothing strange or out of the blue with Nakamura -she was 100% obvious-, and there were no mothers snarling at the blonde to be home _immediately,_ complete with worry about the unsaid ‘or else’, nothing to put her on edge. _Just Rio._ ).

Sitting on a bench, hidden behind the bronze station of Hachiko, the blonde idly sipped at some Starbucks, still in her uniform, legs swinging lazily. Karma wanted to calm down, be happy that Nakamura was there, lazing about as usual, but she could feel her heart tighten.

_I always thought it’d be Nagisa_.

Getting closer, Karma knew she was right to worried; her fear had come true. The blonde’s shoulders were slumped, her uniform ruffled, pages of her textbooks (once in almost brand new condition) were frayed and torn, peeking out of her bag (covered in dust, strap twisted so hard it had almost been torn in half). Her mascara and eyeliner had smudged, a far cry from how her makeup always looked so on point and covergirl worthy; now she just looked like a sad panda. She was a mess and Karma wanted to give the bullies who had done this to her ten times the interest.

“Rude. Getting yourself dropped down to E Class when you know Nagisa’s gonna get dropped. Trying to steal my only other friend? You’re such a bitch, Nakamura.”

The blonde scoffed, but didn’t say anything. (Nakamura had been the one to share her thoughts about Nagisa and others being booted, so Karma hadn’t seen the harm in sharing her ‘to be demoted’ list. Nakamura hadn’t been on either list.)

“I guessed everyone perfectly. I had 100% accuracy on my list.” _You weren’t meant to go._

“Maybe you’re just not as smart as you think you are, huh? Someone’s gotta knock you off your high horse.” Nakamura’s words were hollow, a cheap imitation of her usual jibes. Karma hated her own words, but she was shit at this type of thing. Nakamura messaged _her_ , not anyone else, so maybe it was okay to be normal, no need to tiptoe. Karma sat down next to her, watching people come and go, tourists smile with a statue of an ever loyal dog, accepted Nakamura’s cold, barely touched, coffee when the blonde handed it to her.

They sat like that for a long time, Nakamura trying to smother her cries, shoulders shaking, hands rubbing at her eyes, making the smudges that much worse. Karma inched a little closer. _What the hell am I meant to say? Sorry? We can fix this? It is what it is. Everyone knows it._ So she stayed silent as Nakamura hiccuped, trying not to draw attention to herself as the redhead glared anyone who got too curious.

The sun was setting when Karma moved and arm around the other’s shoulder. “We can still hang out, y’know?”

A muffled sob and Nakamura’s head hit her chin as she half collapsed onto Karma. “I-I d-don’t-t want to g-goooo!! I just want-t t-to play ten-nis!”

Karma couldn’t do anything but hold her closer and nod. “I know. _I know_.”

—

C Class was forever quiet now. Rio barely spoke up, unless she was with another E Class member or Karma. She skipped more frequently - after all, there was no coming back from E Class. Why not go wild?

The constant silence unnerved a lot of people. Before, there was life on the second floor. Rio was loud and obnoxious, Terasaka was always yelling and acting like he was on another level of cool and Hara was always there to calm him and his idiots down, soothing everyone into _just being friends_ , even if only for half an hour.

Tensions rose, even Maehara not having the energy to be the same obnoxious flirt he used to be after weeks of harassment. Okajima had been as loud as ever, if not louder due to the attention, but once he was met with nothing but silence, no matter how smart or rude he was, he deflated, defeated. There had been enough people chosen that friendship circles had been torn apart, rifts made and people forced to choose sides.

The shunned stayed quiet, already settling into their fate as an E Class student. They lost motivation, not caring for anything. When you’re at the bottom of the pit and being buried alive, not a whole lot matters. The sky is too far away. There’s an escape option, but the chance of being able to climb out? To live? Almost impossible. Why fight an un-winnable fight?

Those who were still unsure of their future threw themselves into study. If that wasn’t their forte, they did their best to excel in club activities. _Just a little bit more. If I push myself a little bit more, I can make it. I just have to show my worth._

(Karma disrupted the tennis club a few times. She ruined a lot of the balls, cut the net, dumb things. Nobody thought it was her for once. But Rio knew.

*Rioriorioooo16 ~ Thank you (Read: 7:20am)

They walked to school together most days.   
  
(“Figures Akabane is dating an E Class girl.” “Not like he could get anything better!” “They’ll be together soon enough!”)   
  
Rio had been kicked off the tennis team the moment the news broke. Perhaps she wasn’t as thrilling or as interesting as the game or the team, but Karma would try to keep the blonde smiling.)

One girl was found with her fingers down her throat in the bathroom. Her makeup failed to cover up the dark splotches under her eyes, her cardigan, despite it’s overly long sleeves, failed to hide how she always bit at her nails until they bled. She was a mess. She wasn’t the only one. But she was pretty and popular. Her grades could use work, but she was a well liked member of her club. The school assured her she was safe.

Others weren’t so lucky.

Fuwa, an otaku, was dropped despite her efforts. So was Takebayashi, another nerd. They were easy to bully. Karma smirked at the message it sent: even those who were relatively normal, like the girl from the other day were safe. It was the brutes like Terasaka and the nerds like Takebayashi who were thrown away. The abnormal ones like Rio who couldn’t keep in line, who always had to have their opinion heard. The one’s like Isogai who were too stupid, too honest, to hide their rule breaking. The one’s like Masayoshi, to meek to tell other’s to back off.

The weak. The weak were the one’s being picked off. Those without privilege or rich parents to prevent the inevitable.

A Class continued on without changing. Eventually everyone fell into the pattern of trying to catch up with them. _Scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch._ Pencils on paper, all day every day. Occasionally the monotonous sound was broken up by a page flipping or a student furiously erasing something, cursing that they screwed up, because now they were behind and _shit the teacher was already erasing the notes-!_

_Just a few more weeks._

—

Two weeks until term ended. She was with Nagisa, eating out. It was a Saturday, they had been asked to come in for club activities. Those who weren’t part of a club had a study hall session. Karma had only shown up to hang out with Nagisa later. Rio hadn’t shown up.

Karma was positive all her anxiety about Nagisa was just in her head. It had to be, right? She was good at judging people. Nagisa was weak, a little mouse, someone a person like her didn’t have to be careful around. _Then why aren’t you closer?_

She couldn’t deny that there was something mysterious about Nagisa. He was good and small and honest. He liked video games and his parents were divorced and his mother was crazy. But what else did she really know about him? There was something that made her be a little bit wary, a little uneasy when Nagisa focussed on her.

“Huh? Where’d he go?” The red head had made him go ahead, to get a seat. It was crowded (she was beginning to loath crowds) and Nagisa was short. Trying to find him was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

“Oiii! Nagisa!”

She’d never been in so much pain in her life.

“I’m right here, Karma! Didn’t you see me?”

She was silent, holding their food, mouth open, dumb look on her face. Her mind was still racing, trying to reassure every part of her being that she hadn’t been shot or stabbed or even hurt.

She tried to grin. “Sorry about that, Nagisa. You’re just so small!”

Nagisa didn’t notice the forced tone. He just grumbled. “Yeah yeah, I know, tell me a new one.”

She’d been blindsided. She’d let her guard down around him, still alert, but it wasn’t enough. She didn’t know what the hell the boy had just done to her, but it felt like her mind had been split in two.

Karma crunched on the ice in her drink, the cold hitting her brain and slowing her thoughts. _Just don’t think. Eat, leave, go home. Put some distance between you._ Something she hadn’t done in years, when she realised her parents would probably never come home. A stress reaction.

Even at home she couldn’t place it. There was something in Nagisa that she wanted to drag out of him and crush. She’d never been scared before today. But whatever it was, she wanted it gone. But it wouldn’t have done to beat the boy in a fight or in tests - she’d win. It wasn’t even a contest.

She wanted to grab the boy by the throat, grab out the problem and tear it into a million pieces.

But how? She couldn’t figure it out. _Just take some time. You’ll figure it out._

—

It was a week before the end of term. Things had been quite for longer than she liked. Losing Rio had been more of a hit than she’d thought it’d be. They hung out more while they still could. She dropped Nagisa as a result.

That’s what she told Nakamura anyway.

She honestly couldn’t figure out Nagisa. That shock had been enough for her to place distance between them. It was hard to handle. She couldn’t let it go, which was stupid - even though there was something weird about him, he was small and had never been in a fight in his life. Even if he had some innate talent for fighting, her brains and experience would see her through. There was no situation where she could lose. So why did she feel so uneasy?

Nagisa thought she was acting weird, but when she didn’t really respond in class, the boy backed away. He kept messaging her privately, but her responses were few and far between. They were so short she might as well not have responded at all. They started to drift apart.

Eventually Nagisa gave in.

Karma could see how hurt Nagisa was. He wasn’t a hugely emotional person, but he was still easy to read. He became quieter, smaller, as though he was just shrinking into his seat. Nagisa’s friends didn’t want anything to do with her because of how upset he was. She respected that.

Occasionally she felt Nagisa’s eyes on her. She’d been thankful that she didn’t sit behind him, so she didn’t have to see how pathetic he looked all the time. But she hated it when she could feel him staring. He was clearly confused (who wouldn’t be? Things were fine then she was just a block of ice) and concerned, but it made the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. It was irritating and distracting.

(And how long had he been staring before she noticed? She had no idea how to judge things regarding Nagisa anymore. Everything unnerved her now and it pissed her off how she couldn’t just deal with it.)

What pissed her off was that people didn’t seem to get that she wasn’t having a good time either. Everyone always knew and joked about how unsociable she was, yet now she and Nagisa had drifted, everyone just assumed that she was a bully, rather than someone unable to express herself properly. Of course Nagisa got all the sympathy - small, weak, mouse. She got all the criticism - bully, jerk, _what else did you expect from someone like him?_ She wondered if the tables would actually turn if people knew she was a girl or if Nagisa would still be the one getting all the sympathy.

She didn’t blame anyone for thinking it was her fault, but it’d be nice if someone just thought a little further or saw how Nakamura was the only one who hadn’t turned against her.

“You’re not telling me everything.”  
“There’s nothing to tell.”

Nakamura sighed. She’d tried to figure out what was going on and fix it (Karma had been furious when she heard the blonde had already gotten Nagisa’s side of the story). The blonde had lost most of her friends so seeing Karma upset was something she’d rather not deal with. How hard could it be to get two boys to just get over themselves?

Close to impossible apparently.

Karma rolled her eyes everyone time the blonde went on one of her rants. She was tempted to blurt out the truth, that she was a girl and that Nagisa creeped her the fuck out and she had no idea why, but she kept her mouth shut. She was sick of people trying to meddle in her business.

—

Friday. The last hour of the day. She was in Sensei’s office. Again. She hadn’t messed up in a while, but he still asked her to come in for their fake counselling sessions, just to keep her ‘on track’.

Sensei had gotten a promotion after one of the more senior teacher’s got hit by a car or something. (“There were no cars involved Akabane!” “That’s no fun at all!”) He had his own office now, so she didn’t have to sit in the staff room with everyone being irritated by her very presence.

“I’m sure you’ll do a lot better next term. Next year, too. With the weeding out of the distractions and all.”  
She was lazing on a chair, playing on her phone, only half listening. “What distractions?”  
Sensei had to take a phone call. She asked again when he was done. “Oh, y’know, what’s his name. Blue hair? Small and quiet?”  
“Nagisa?” She felt her stomach drop.  
“Yeah him. He’s off to E Class, did you know?”

She didn’t know what the feeling was, but she’d say it was black. And heavy. Like tar. Karma felt like she couldn’t move, couldn’t breath.

“Oh…”  
“Guess you don’t have to share your stage with anyone anymore, huh? Nothing to drag you back now!”

She wished Sensei’d shut up. He kept talking, happy that his own student was being thrown to the dogs. _He probably recommended that Nagisa goes to E Class._ She was pissed, but what was she meant to do? He wasn’t _wrong_ (well, by school standards. Morally it was a mess). Karma opened line to send Nagisa a message. _Tap tap tapptap taptap tatatap_. Back and forth, back and forth, she wrote and erase. Eventually Sensei kicked her out. “Don’t forget to study over the break!”

She never sent the message.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, what do you think? I don’t want to fish for reviews, but even just a kudos or a ‘nice!’ would be nice… :D We’re also the 20k mark! Hurray! 
> 
> Lmao for this chapter meaning to be about Nagisa and most of it is taken up by Queen Rio lol. 
> 
> Also! What ships would you guys like to see? I already have an idea of where this is going (a few different scenarios), but I’d like to hear your input regardless! I won’t promise anything, but I like hearing feedback (reviewer feedback has led to me making sequels etc before, so I do listen!) No ships will be happening in the third year (except for canon stuff, i.e. The NagiKae kiss, Sugino liking Kanzaki etc), simply because the kids are already swamped and to be honest I really like 3-E’s dynamics and romance would get in the way of that. 
> 
> Also I did update the previous chapters (Sonic Ninja onwards) to make the dialogue match the episodes a little bit more (though I effed up by giving them a different homeroom teacher each year but w/e). And I reformatted the text messages (* stands for where their avatar would be), but unless you really want to, it’s not necessary to reread them. I apologise for the delay on this chapter >.<
> 
> There will be another one this month as well! The rest of the kids get booted down next chapter and Karma gets suspended for being a little shit :) 
> 
> Have a nice day guys!


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